IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/kud/kuiedp/0619.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Gains from Improved Market Efficiency: Trade Before and After the Transatlantic Telegraph

Author

Listed:
  • Mette Ejrnæs

    (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen)

  • Karl Gunnar Persson

    (Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen)

Abstract

This paper looks at the gains from improved market efficiency in long-distance grain trade in the second half of the 19th century when violations of the law of one price were reduced due to improved information transmission. Two markets, a major export centre, Chicago, and a major importer, Liverpool, are analyzed. We show that there was a law of one price equilibrium throughout the period but that markets displayed spells of demand- or supply-constrained trade when the law of one price was violated. Over time adjustments back to equilibrium, as measured by the half-life of a shock, become faster, violations of the law of one price become smaller and hence less persistent. There were also significant gains from improved market efficiency but that improvement took place after the information ‘regime’ shifted from pre-telegraphic communication to a regime with swift transmission of information in an era which developed a sophisticated commercial press and telegraphic communication. Improved market efficiency probably stimulated trade more than falling transport costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Mette Ejrnæs & Karl Gunnar Persson, 2006. "The Gains from Improved Market Efficiency: Trade Before and After the Transatlantic Telegraph," Discussion Papers 06-19, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:kud:kuiedp:0619
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econ.ku.dk/english/research/publications/wp/2006/0619.pdf/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ejrnaes, Mette & Persson, Karl Gunnar, 2000. "Market Integration and Transport Costs in France 1825-1903: A Threshold Error Correction Approach to the Law of One Price," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 149-173, April.
    2. Williamson, Jeffrey G., 1980. "Greasing the wheels of sputtering export engines: Widwestern grains and American growth," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 189-217, July.
    3. Giovannini, Alberto, 1988. "Exchange rates and traded goods prices," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1-2), pages 45-68, February.
    4. Taylor, Alan M, 2001. "Potential Pitfalls for the Purchasing-Power-Parity Puzzle? Sampling and Specification Biases in Mean-Reversion Tests of the Law of One Price," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(2), pages 473-498, March.
    5. Banerjee, Anindya & Dolado, Juan J. & Galbraith, John W. & Hendry, David, 1993. "Co-integration, Error Correction, and the Econometric Analysis of Non-Stationary Data," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198288107, Decembrie.
    6. Lew, Byron & Cater, Bruce, 2006. "The telegraph, co-ordination of tramp shipping, and growth in world trade, 1870–1910," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(2), pages 147-173, August.
    7. Irwin, Douglas A, 1988. "Welfare Effects of British Free Trade: Debate and Evidence from the 1840s," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(6), pages 1142-1164, December.
    8. Kevin H. O'Rourke & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2001. "Globalization and History: The Evolution of a Nineteenth-Century Atlantic Economy," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262650592, December.
    9. Mancur Olson & Curtis C. Harris, 1959. "Free Trade in "CORN": A Statistical Study of the Prices and Production of Wheat in Great Britain from 1873 To 1914," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 73(1), pages 145-168.
    10. Williamson, Jeffrey G., 1990. "The impact of the Corn Laws just prior to repeal," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 123-156, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Zouheir El-Sahli, 2020. "Submarine cables, the internet backbone and the trade in services," Discussion Papers 2020-05, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    2. Pierre Cotterlaz, 2021. "Three essays on spatial frictions [Trois essais sur les frictions spatiales]," SciencePo Working papers tel-03436173, HAL.
    3. Claudia Steinwender, 2018. "Real Effects of Information Frictions: When the States and the Kingdom Became United," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(3), pages 657-696, March.
    4. Markus Lampe & Paul Sharp, 2015. "How the Danes discovered Britain: the international integration of the Danish dairy industry before 1880," European Review of Economic History, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(4), pages 432-453.
    5. Markus Lampe & Paul Sharp, 2014. "Greasing the wheels of rural transformation? Margarine and the competition for the British butter market," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(3), pages 769-792, August.
    6. Wache, Benjamin, 2021. "Information Frictions, Global Capital Markets, and the Telegraph," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242444, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    7. Alexander Pütz & Pierre L. Siklos & Christoph Sulewski, 2019. "“Who pays the piper calls the tune” – Networks and transaction costs in commodity markets," CQE Working Papers 8819, Center for Quantitative Economics (CQE), University of Muenster.
    8. Martin Uebele & Daniel Gallardo-Albarr�n, 2015. "Paving the way to modernity: Prussian roads and grain market integration in Westphalia, 1821-1855," Scandinavian Economic History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 63(1), pages 69-92, March.
    9. David Chilosi & Giovanni Federico, 2021. "The effects of market integration during the first globalization: a multi-market approach," European Review of Economic History, Oxford University Press, vol. 25(1), pages 20-58.
    10. Cannon, Edmund & Brunt, Liam, 2013. "Integration in the English wheat market 1770-1820," CEPR Discussion Papers 9504, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. Ganneval, S., 2016. "Spatial price transmission on agricultural commodity markets under different volatility regimes," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 52(PA), pages 173-185.
    12. Tahir Andrabi & Sheetal Bharat & Michael Kuehlwein, 2021. "Information And Price Convergence:Telegraphs In British India," BASE University Working Papers 04/2021, BASE University, Bengaluru, India.
    13. Pierre Cotterlaz & Etienne Fize, 2021. "Information in the First Globalization: News Agencies and Trade," Working Papers 2021-02, CEPII research center.
    14. Sharp, Paul & Weisdorf, Jacob, 2013. "Globalization revisited: Market integration and the wheat trade between North America and Britain from the eighteenth century," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 88-98.
    15. Steinwender, Claudia, 2013. "Information Frictions and the Law of One Price: “When the States and the Kingdom became United”," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Docweb) 1314, CEPREMAP.
    16. Martin T. Bohl & Alexander Pütz & Pierre L. Siklos & Christoph Sulewski, 2021. "Information transmission under increasing political tensions—Evidence from the Berlin Produce Exchange 1887–1896," Journal of Futures Markets, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(2), pages 226-244, February.
    17. Pierre Cotterlaz, 2021. "Three essays on spatial frictions [Trois essais sur les frictions spatiales]," SciencePo Working papers Main tel-03436173, HAL.

    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. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/670 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Flandreau, Marc & Accominotti, Olivier, 2005. "Does Bilateralism Promote Trade? Nineteenth Century Liberalization Revisited," CEPR Discussion Papers 5423, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. John E. Murray & Javier Silvestre, 2020. "Integration in European coal markets, 1833–1913," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 73(3), pages 668-702, August.
    4. Rodolphe Blavy & Luciana Juvenal, 2009. "Mexico's integration into NAFTA markets: a view from sectoral real exchange rates," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 91(Sep), pages 441-464.
    5. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2004. "Trade Costs," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(3), pages 691-751, September.
    6. Alan M. Taylor, 2002. "Globalization, Trade, and Development: Some Lessons From History," NBER Working Papers 9326, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Goodwin, Barry K. & Grennes, Thomas J. & Craig, Lee A., 2002. "Mechanical Refrigeration and the Integration of Perishable Commodity Markets," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 154-182, April.
    8. Zissimos, Ben, 2017. "A theory of trade policy under dictatorship and democratization," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 85-101.
    9. Chandan Sharma, 2019. "Exchange rate volatility and exports from India: a commodity-level panel data analysis," Journal of Financial Economic Policy, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 12(1), pages 23-44, June.
    10. Kenneth A. Froot & Michael Kim & Kenneth Rogoff, 2019. "The Law of One Price Over 700 Years," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 20(1), pages 1-35, May.
    11. Maurice Obstfeld & Kenneth Rogoff, 2001. "The Six Major Puzzles in International Macroeconomics: Is There a Common Cause?," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2000, Volume 15, pages 339-412, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Barry K. Goodwin & Matthew T. Holt & Gülcan Önel & Jeffrey P. Prestemon, 2018. "Copula-based nonlinear modeling of the law of one price for lumber products," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 54(3), pages 1237-1265, May.
    13. Wolfgang Keller & Carol H. Shiue, 2008. "Institutions, Technology, and Trade," NBER Working Papers 13913, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Tony Ward, 2004. "The Corn Laws and English wheat prices, 1815–1846," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 32(3), pages 245-255, September.
    15. Sarno, Lucio & Taylor, Mark P. & Chowdhury, Ibrahim, 2004. "Nonlinear dynamics in deviations from the law of one price: a broad-based empirical study," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 1-25, February.
    16. Yousef, Tarik M., 2000. "The Political Economy of Interwar Egyptian Cotton Policy," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 301-325, October.
    17. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/670 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Peter H. Lindert & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2003. "Does Globalization Make the World More Unequal?," NBER Chapters, in: Globalization in Historical Perspective, pages 227-276, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Allen, Robert C., 2009. "Engels' pause: Technical change, capital accumulation, and inequality in the british industrial revolution," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 418-435, October.
    20. Paul R. Bergin & Reuven Glick & Alan M. Taylor, 2017. "Productivity, Tradability, and the Long-Run Price Puzzle," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: International Macroeconomic Interdependence, chapter 8, pages 211-248, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    21. Jean Imbs & Haroon Mumtaz & Morten O. Ravn & Hélène Rey, 2005. "PPP Strikes Back: Aggregation And the Real Exchange Rate," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 120(1), pages 1-43.
    22. Midrigan, Virgiliu, 2007. "International price dispersion in state-dependent pricing models," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(8), pages 2231-2250, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    market integration; error correction; law of one price;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F1 - International Economics - - Trade
    • C5 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling
    • N7 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:kud:kuiedp:0619. 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: Thomas Hoffmann (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/okokudk.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.