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Rising Trade Costs? Agglomeration and Trade with Endogenous Transaction Costs

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  • Duranton, Gilles
  • Storper, Michael

Abstract

While transport costs have fallen, the empirical evidence also points at rising total trade costs. In a model of industry location with endogenous transaction costs, we show how and under which conditions a decline in transport costs can lead to an increase in the total cost of trade.

Suggested Citation

  • Duranton, Gilles & Storper, Michael, 2005. "Rising Trade Costs? Agglomeration and Trade with Endogenous Transaction Costs," CEPR Discussion Papers 4933, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:4933
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Transaction costs; Trade costs; Transport costs; Agglomeration; Vertically linked industries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

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