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Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society Advance Access originally published online on August 20, 2008
Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 2008 1(3):439-458; doi:10.1093/cjres/rsn019
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Cambridge Political Economy Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

This article appears in the following Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society issue: The World is not Flat; Putting Globalisation in its Place [View the issue table of contents]

A rather empty world: the many faces of distance and the persistent resistance to international trade

Gert-Jan M. Lindersa, Martijn J. Burgerb and Frank G. van Oortc

a Department of Spatial Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, NL-1081 HV Amsterdam, the Netherlands. glinders{at}feweb.vu.nl
b Department of Applied Economics and Erasmus Research Institute of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, PO Box 1738, NL-3000 DR Rotterdam, the Netherlands. mburger{at}few.eur.nl
c Department of Economic Geography, Utrecht University, PO Box 80115, Utrecht NL-3508 TC, the Netherlands. f.vanoort{at}geo.uu.nl


  Abstract

Despite the rapid growth of world trade over the past several decades, international trade patterns remain very much affected by high trade costs. In this paper, we emphasize the importance of distance between countries in a proper explanation of the persistent resistance to trade. We find that both formal trade barriers (tariffs, transport costs, etc.) and informal trade barriers (related to cultural and institutional distances) between countries have retained their importance to trade. Not only are these tangible and intangible barriers critical in explaining the volume of trade between countries but they also help to explain the absence of trade between many countries.

Keywords: international trade, distance, trade barriers

Received on March 31, 2008. Accepted on July 7, 2008.

JEL Classifications:: F11, F12, F18


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