IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jecomi/v13y2025i3p65-d1603336.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Assessment of Socio-Economic Impacts of Hyperloop Technology on European Trade Routes

Author

Listed:
  • Aleksejs Vesjolijs

    (Transport and Telecommunication Institute, Accenture, 1 Grand Canal Square, D02 P820 Dublin, Ireland)

  • Yulia Stukalina

    (Transport and Telecommunication Institute, Accenture, 1 Grand Canal Square, D02 P820 Dublin, Ireland)

  • Olga Zervina

    (Transport and Telecommunication Institute, 2 Lauvas street, LV-1019 Riga, Latvia)

Abstract

This study investigates the possible socio-economic impacts of Hyperloop technology on establishing and reshaping EU trade routes. Hyperloop—a novel ultra-high-speed transportation system—demonstrates the capability to achieve supersonic speeds to move cargo and passengers. Delivering goods in a faster and sustainable way could change the existing trade routes and offer new opportunities for the development of international trade. This research focuses on assessing how Hyperloop may influence existing EU trade routes by improving delivery times and reducing energy usage/carbon emissions (these terms will be used interchangeably throughout the paper where both reducing long-terms costs and meeting climate goals are equally impacted by this technology). Further objectives include evaluating potential new trade routes that could emerge due to Hyperloop’s capabilities. In this paper, twelve different scenarios are constructed and compared; these scenarios contain the description of current EU trade routes that could be influenced by Hyperloop and those that could be introduced given the improved delivery times and sustainable business opportunities. The gravity model is proposed and an equation is estimated using the PPML (Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood) method based on Eurostat and IMF open data. Based on the research results, different socio-economic outcomes for different layers of EU trade, including negative and positive impacts, are identified. The findings suggest that deploying Hyperloop technology would result in a 15% increase in exports and a 10% increase in imports for European trade. Both positive and negative socio-economic impacts are identified, highlighting the complexities of adopting such a disruptive technology. The research results could be used in the process of decision-making for estimating risks and performing economic analysis on various aspects of the EU trade policy. The study results could also guide EU decision-makers in assessing the main impacts of Hyperloop technology on the transportation industry, on the environment, and on society, in the context of further developing EU trade routes.

Suggested Citation

  • Aleksejs Vesjolijs & Yulia Stukalina & Olga Zervina, 2025. "Assessment of Socio-Economic Impacts of Hyperloop Technology on European Trade Routes," Economies, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-21, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:13:y:2025:i:3:p:65-:d:1603336
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/13/3/65/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/13/3/65/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2003. "Gravity with Gravitas: A Solution to the Border Puzzle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 170-192, March.
    2. Frensch, Richard & Fidrmuc, Jarko & Rindler, Michael, 2023. "Topography, borders, and trade across Europe," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 816-832.
    3. Latifi, Albina & Naboka-Krell, Viktoriia & Tillmann, Peter & Winker, Peter, 2024. "Fiscal policy in the Bundestag: Textual analysis and macroeconomic effects," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    4. Yu, Yu & Ma, Daipeng & Zhu, Weiwei, 2023. "Resilience assessment of international cobalt trade network," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    5. Tan, Zhijia & Shao, Shuai & Zhang, Di & Shang, Wen-Long & Ochieng, Washington & Han, Yi, 2024. "Decarbonizing the inland container fleet with carbon cap-and-trade scheme," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 376(PB).
    6. Werner, Max & Eißing, Klaus & Langton, Sebastian, 2016. "Shared Value Potential of Transporting Cargo via Hyperloop," Working Paper 166/2016, Helmut Schmidt University, Hamburg.
    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. Rodolfo G. Campos & Benedikt Heid & Jacopo Timini, 2024. "The Economic Consequences of Geopolitical Fragmentation: Evidence from the Cold War," CESifo Working Paper Series 11057, CESifo.
    2. Mariya Aleksynska & Giovanni Peri, 2014. "Isolating the Network Effect of Immigrants on Trade," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(3), pages 434-455, March.
    3. Anthony Briant & Pierre-Philippe Combes & Miren Lafourcade, 2014. "Product Complexity, Quality of Institutions and the Protrade Effect of Immigrants," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(1), pages 63-85, January.
    4. Oh, Chang Hoon & Travis Selmier, W. & Lien, Donald, 2011. "International trade, foreign direct investment, and transaction costs in languages," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 732-735.
    5. Amelie Guillin & Isabelle Rabaud & Chahir Zaki, 2023. "Does the depth of trade agreements matter for trade in services?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(12), pages 3616-3653, December.
    6. Thomas L. Vollrath & Mark J. Gehlhar & Charles B. Hallahan, 2009. "Bilateral Import Protection, Free Trade Agreements, and Other Factors Influencing Trade Flows in Agriculture and Clothing," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(2), pages 298-317, June.
    7. Edmond Noubissi & Boker Poumie & Hilaire Nkengfack, 2021. "Effect of environmental policies on exports from sub‐Saharan African countries," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 33(4), pages 688-702, December.
    8. Beestermöller, Matthias, 2017. "Striking Evidence? Demand Persistence for Inter-City Buses from German Railway Strikes," Discussion Papers in Economics 31768, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    9. Luis Marcelo Florensa & Laura M uez-Ramos & Inmaculada Mart󹑺-Zarzoso & Mar𨁌uisa Recalde, 2015. "Regional versus global production networks: where does Latin America stand?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(37), pages 3938-3956, August.
    10. Michele Fratianni & Francesco Marchionne, 2011. "The Limits to Integration," Chapters, in: Miroslav N. Jovanović (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Integration, Volume I, chapter 9, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Jingyuan Hou & Zhonghai Cheng & Xinshu Gong, 2022. "The Effect of Exports and Two-Way Foreign Direct Investment between China and Pan-East Asian Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-19, December.
    12. Joras Ferwerda & Mark Kattenberg & Han-Hsin Chang & Brigitte Unger & Loek Groot & Jacob A. Bikker, 2013. "Gravity models of trade-based money laundering," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(22), pages 3170-3182, August.
    13. Peter Egger & Douglas Nelson, 2011. "How Bad Is Antidumping? Evidence from Panel Data," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(4), pages 1374-1390, November.
    14. Iván Fernández-Val & Martin Weidner, 2018. "Fixed Effects Estimation of Large-TPanel Data Models," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 10(1), pages 109-138, August.
    15. Erik Marel & Ben Shepherd, 2013. "Services Trade, Regulation and Regional Integration: Evidence from Sectoral Data," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(11), pages 1393-1405, November.
    16. repec:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2009-020 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Redding, Stephen J. & Weinstein, David E., 2016. "A unified approach to estimating demand and welfare," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 67681, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Marc Flandreau & Mathilde Maurel, 2005. "Monetary Union, Trade Integration, and Business Cycles in 19th Century Europe," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 135-152, April.
    19. Laurent Didier, 2017. "South-South Trade and Geographical Diversification of Intra-SSA Trade: Evidence from BRICs," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 29(2), pages 139-154, June.
    20. Hildegunn K. Nordås & Dorothée Rouzet, 2017. "The Impact of Services Trade Restrictiveness on Trade Flows," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(6), pages 1155-1183, June.
    21. Jeffrey H. Bergstrand & Scott L. Baier, 2010. "An Evaluation of Swiss Free Trade Agreements Using Matching Econometrics," Aussenwirtschaft, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science, Swiss Institute for International Economics and Applied Economics Research, vol. 65(3), pages 239-250, September.

    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:gam:jecomi:v:13:y:2025:i:3:p:65-:d:1603336. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.