IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v95y2005i1p292-313.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Distance, Time, and Specialization: Lean Retailing in General Equilibrium

Author

Listed:
  • Carolyn L. Evans
  • James Harrigan

Abstract

Transport time increases with distance traveled, and time is valuable. We show the implications of these facts for global specialization and trade: products where timely delivery is important will be produced near the source of final demand, where wages will be higher as a result. In the model, timely delivery is important because it allows retailers to respond to final demand fluctuations without holding costly inventories, and timely delivery is possible only from nearby locations. Using a unique dataset that allows us to measure the retail demand for timely delivery, we show that the sources of U.S. apparel imports have shifted in the way predicted by the model, with products for which timeliness matters increasingly imported from nearby countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Carolyn L. Evans & James Harrigan, 2005. "Distance, Time, and Specialization: Lean Retailing in General Equilibrium," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(1), pages 292-313, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:95:y:2005:i:1:p:292-313
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/0002828053828590
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/0002828053828590
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/aer/data/mar05_data_evans.zip
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/aer/data/mar05_app_evans.pdf
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David L. Hummels & Georg Schaur, 2013. "Time as a Trade Barrier," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(7), pages 2935-2959, December.
    2. Alan V. Deardorff, 2014. "Local comparative advantage: Trade costs and the pattern of trade," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 10(1), pages 9-35, March.
    3. Steven J. Davis & John C. Haltiwanger & Scott Schuh, 1998. "Job Creation and Destruction," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262540932, December.
    4. Redding, Stephen & Venables, Anthony J., 2004. "Economic geography and international inequality," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 53-82, January.
    5. Berthelon, Matias & Freund, Caroline, 2008. "On the conservation of distance in international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 310-320, July.
    6. Anthony Venables, 2001. "Geography and International Inequalities: The Impact of New Technologies," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 135-159, June.
    7. Hummels, David, 2001. "Time As A Trade Barrier," Working papers 28701, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carolyn L. Evans & James Harrigan, 2003. "Distance, time, and specialization," International Finance Discussion Papers 766, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    2. Frank Pisch, 2020. "Managing global production: theory and evidence from just-in-time supply chains," CEP Discussion Papers dp1689, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    3. Harrigan, James, 2010. "Airplanes and comparative advantage," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 181-194, November.
    4. Fink, Carsten & Mattoo, Aaditya & Neagu, Ileana Cristina, 2005. "Assessing the impact of communication costs on international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 428-445, December.
    5. Chen, Natalie & Novy, Dennis, 2008. "International Trade Integration: A Disaggregated Approach," CEPR Discussion Papers 7103, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Harrigan, James & Venables, Tony, 2004. "Timeliness, trade and agglomeration," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 2300, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Méjean, Isabelle, 2008. "Can firms' location decisions counteract the Balassa-Samuelson effect?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 139-154, December.
    8. Volpe Martincus, Christian & Carballo, Jerónimo & Graziano, Alejandro, 2015. "Customs," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 119-137.
    9. Julio Martinez-Galarraga & Daniel A. Tirado & Rafael González-Val, 2015. "Market potential and regional economic growth in Spain (1860–1930)," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 19(4), pages 335-358.
    10. Douglas H. Brooks, 2010. "Regional Cooperation, Infrastructure, and Trade Costs in Asia," Working Papers id:3090, eSocialSciences.
    11. Baum-Snow, Nathaniel & Henderson, J. Vernon & Turner, Matthew A. & Zhang, Qinghua & Brandt, Loren, 2020. "Does investment in national highways help or hurt hinterland city growth?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    12. Charles J. Kenny, 2002. "The Internet and Economic Growth in Least Developed Countries: A Case of Managing Expectations?," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2002-75, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    13. Mayer, Thierry & Pierre-Phillippe Combes & Miren Lafourcade, 2003. "Can Business and Social Networks Explain the Border Effect Puzzle?," Royal Economic Society Annual Conference 2003 150, Royal Economic Society.
    14. de Jong, Eelke & Bogmans, Christian, 2011. "Does corruption discourage international trade?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 385-398, June.
    15. Olner, Dan & Mitchell, Gordon & Heppenstall, Alison & Pryce, Gwilym, 2020. "The spatial economics of energy justice: modelling the trade impacts of increased transport costs in a low carbon transition and the implications for UK regional inequality," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    16. Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Lafourcade, Miren, 2011. "Competition, market access and economic geography: Structural estimation and predictions for France," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 508-524.
    17. Stephen Redding & Anthony J. Venables, 2002. "The Economics of Isolation and Distance," Nordic Journal of Political Economy, Nordic Journal of Political Economy, vol. 28, pages 93-108.
    18. Guillaume Daudin, 2005. "Les transactions de la mondialisation," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 92(1), pages 221-262.
    19. Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Lafourcade, Miren, 2003. "Core-Periphery Patterns of Generalized Transport Costs: France, 1978-98," CEPR Discussion Papers 3958, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    20. Ikumo Isono, 2011. "Economic Integration and the Expansion of Trade and Transport Networks," Chapters, in: Masahisa Fujita & Ikuo Kuroiwa & Satoru Kumagai (ed.), The Economics of East Asian Integration, chapter 13, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    Lists

    This item is featured on the following reading lists, Wikipedia, or ReplicationWiki pages:
    1. Distance, Time and Specialization: Lean Retailing in General Equilibrium (AER 2005) in ReplicationWiki

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:95:y:2005:i:1:p:292-313. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.