IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/marecl/v5y2003i2p179-198.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of Transport Costs on International Trade: The Case of Spanish Ceramic Exports

Author

Listed:
  • I Martínez-Zarzoso

    (Institute of International Economics and Department of Economics, University Jaume I, Spain)

  • L García-Menéndez

    (Institute of International Economics and Department of Economics, University of Valencia, Spain.)

  • C Suárez-Burguet

    (Institute of International Economics and Department of Economics, University Jaume I, Spain)

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the determinants of maritime and overland transport costs and the role they play in deterring trade across countries. We estimate a transport cost function using data on maritime and overland transport of the ceramic sector (tiles) obtained from interviews held with Spanish logistics operators. We also study the relationship between transport costs and trade and estimate an import demand model for ceramic products. Additionally, we present a discussion on the sensitivity of trade flows and transportation costs to the existence of back-hauling, special conditions for transport and number of reloads.1 The study of modal transport (overland versus maritime) and its differential characteristics are of relevant interest for maritime economists and should be taken into account in economic policy-making. Furthermore, the proven impact of infrastructure on transport costs and trade points towards the importance of investing in new port infrastructures as a way of fostering trade and income. Our results from the transport cost estimation show that higher distance and poor partner infrastructure lead to a notable increase in transport costs. Inclusion of infrastructure measures improves the fit of the regression, thus corroborating the importance of infrastructure in determining transport costs. The distance coefficient remains significant and with similar magnitude when we add infrastructure variables. Our results from the trade equation estimation show that importer income, as expected, has a positive influence in bilateral trade flows. Higher transport costs significantly deter trade, and distance does not appear to be a good proxy for transport costs in the ceramics sector. Maritime Economics & Logistics (2003) 5, 179–198. doi:10.1057/palgrave.mel.9100069

Suggested Citation

  • I Martínez-Zarzoso & L García-Menéndez & C Suárez-Burguet, 2003. "Impact of Transport Costs on International Trade: The Case of Spanish Ceramic Exports," Maritime Economics & Logistics, Palgrave Macmillan;International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME), vol. 5(2), pages 179-198, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:marecl:v:5:y:2003:i:2:p:179-198
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/mel/journal/v5/n2/pdf/9100069a.pdf
    File Function: Link to full text PDF
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/mel/journal/v5/n2/full/9100069a.html
    File Function: Link to full text HTML
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso & Laura Márquez-Ramos, 2005. "Does Technology Foster Trade? Empirical Evidence for Developed and Developing Countries," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 33(1), pages 55-69, March.
    2. Gordon Wilmsmeier & Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso, 2009. "Determinants of maritime transport costs -- a panel data analysis for Latin American trade," Transportation Planning and Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(1), pages 105-121, October.
    3. Inmaculada Mart�nez-Zarzoso & Sami Bensassi, 2013. "The Price Of Modern Maritime Piracy," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(5), pages 397-418, October.
    4. Martínez-Moya, Julián & Feo-Valero, María, 2022. "Do shippers’ characteristics influence port choice criteria? Capturing heterogeneity by using latent class models," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 96-105.
    5. Pedro Coca Castaño & Laura Márquez Ramos & Inmaculada Martínez Zarzoso, 2005. "Infraestructuras, costos de transporte y flujos de comercio," Revista de Analisis Economico – Economic Analysis Review, Universidad Alberto Hurtado/School of Economics and Business, vol. 20(1), pages 3-22, June.
    6. Inmaculada Martinez-Zarzoso & Felicitas D. Nowak-Lehmann, 2007. "Is distance a good proxy for transport costs? The case of competing transport modes," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 411-434.
    7. Run Yu & PingSun Leung, 2011. "Estimating the economic benefits of area-wide pest management: an extended framework with transport cost," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 46(2), pages 455-468, April.
    8. Laura Márquez-Ramos & Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso & Eva Pérez-García & Gordon Wilmsmeier, 2011. "“Special Issue on Latin-American Research” Maritime Networks, Services Structure and Maritime Trade," Networks and Spatial Economics, Springer, vol. 11(3), pages 555-576, September.
    9. Thomas Gries & Wim Naudé & Marianne Matthee, 2009. "The Optimal Distance To Port For Exporting Firms," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(3), pages 513-528, August.
    10. Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso & Gordon Wilmsmeier, 2010. "Freight Rates and the Margins of Intra-Latin American Maritime Trade," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 201, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    11. Pérez-Mesa, Juan Carlos & García-Barranco, M & Piedra-Muñoz, Laura & Galdeano-Gómez, Emilio, 2019. "Transport as a limiting factor for the growth of Spanish agri-food exports," MPRA Paper 119855, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso & Felicitas Nowak-Lehmann D., 2006. "Road and Maritime Transport Costs: A Comparative Analysis of Spanish Exports to Poland and Turkey," Ibero America Institute for Econ. Research (IAI) Discussion Papers 138, Ibero-America Institute for Economic Research.
    13. Wei Ma & Xiaoshu Cao & Jiyuan Li, 2021. "Impact of Logistics Development Level on International Trade in China: A Provincial Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-18, February.
    14. Bensassi, Sami & Márquez-Ramos, Laura & Martínez-Zarzoso, Inmaculada & Suárez-Burguet, Celestino, 2015. "Relationship between logistics infrastructure and trade: Evidence from Spanish regional exports," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 47-61.
    15. Feo-Valero, María & Martínez-Moya, Julián, 2022. "Shippers vs. freight forwarders: Do they differ in their port choice decisions? Evidence from the Spanish ceramic tile industry," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).

    More about this item

    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:pal:marecl:v:5:y:2003:i:2:p:179-198. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.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.