Estimating the effects of the container revolution on world trade

Bernhofen, Daniel M.; El-Sahli, Zouheir; Kneller, Richard

Abstract

© 2015 Elsevier B.V. Many historical accounts have asserted that containerization triggered complementary technological and organizational changes that revolutionized global freight transport. We are the first to suggest an identification strategy for estimating the effects of the container revolution on world trade. Our empirical strategy exploits time and cross-sectional variation in countries' first adoption of container facilities and combines it with product-level variation in containerizability and container usage. Applying our container variables on a large panel of product level trade flows for the period 1962-1990, our estimates suggest economically large concurrent and cumulative effects of containerization and lend support for the view of containerization being a driver of 20th century economic globalization.

Citation

Bernhofen, D. M., El-Sahli, Z., & Kneller, R. (2016). Estimating the effects of the container revolution on world trade. Journal of International Economics, 98, 36-50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinteco.2015.09.001

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 3, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Sep 14, 2015
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Nov 20, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 15, 2019
• Journal: Journal of International Economics
• Print ISSN: 0022-1996
• Electronic ISSN: 1873-0353
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 98
• Pages: 36-50
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinteco.2015.09.001
• Keywords: containerization, 20th century global transportation infrastructure, growth of world trade
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/761350
• Publisher URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022199615001403
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: Estimating the effects of the container revolution on world trade; Journal Title: Journal of International Economics; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinteco.2015.09.001; Content Type: article; Copyright: Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.