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Shipping the Good Apples Out? An Empirical Confirmation of the Alchian-Allen Conjecture

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David Hummels
Alexandre Skiba

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Abstract

We model demand for quality differentiated goods to derive a relationship between trade costs and the quality composition of trade. Detailed data on traded goods' prices, quantities and shipping costs for many importers and exporters are used to test these predictions. These data provide a strong rejection of the iceberg assumption on transportation costs and a strong confirmation of the classical Alchian Allen hypothesis. Within a narrowly defined commodity classification, exporters charge destination-varying prices that co-vary positively with shipping costs and negatively with tariffs. Shipping costs operate as a quantitative restriction similar to quotas.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 9023.

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Date of creation: Jun 2002
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9023

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F1 - International Economics - - Trade

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Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Umbeck, John, 1980. "Shipping the Good Apples Out: Some Ambiguities in the Interpretation of "Fixed Charge"," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 88(1), pages 199-208, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. David Hummels & Peter J. Klenow, 2002. "The Variety and Quality of a Nation's Trade," NBER Working Papers 8712, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Gould, John P & Segall, Joel, 1969. "The Substitution Effects of Transportation Costs," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 77(1), pages 130-37, Jan./Feb.. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Rosen, Sherwin, 1974. "Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Product Differentiation in Pure Competition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(1), pages 34-55, Jan.-Feb.. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Herguera, Inigo & Kujal, Praveen & Petrakis, Emmanuel, 2000. "Quantity restrictions and endogenous quality choice," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 18(8), pages 1259-1277, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Borcherding, Thomas E & Silberberg, Eugene, 1978. "Shipping the Good Apples Out: The Alchian and Allen Theorem Reconsidered," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(1), pages 131-38, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Falvey, Rodney E, 1979. "The Composition of Trade within Import-restricted Product Categories," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(5), pages 1105-14, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg & Michael M. Knetter, 1997. "Goods Prices and Exchange Rates: What Have We Learned?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(3), pages 1243-1272, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Epple, Dennis, 1987. "Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Estimating Demand and Supply Functions for Differentiated Products," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(1), pages 59-80, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Anderson, James E, 1985. "The Relative Inefficiency of Quotas: The Cheese Case," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(1), pages 178-90, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Carlos Alfredo Rodriguez, 1979. "The Quality of Imports and the Differential Welfare Effects of Tariffs, Quotas, and Quality Controls as Protective Devices," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 12(3), pages 439-49, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Aw, Bee Yan & Roberts, Mark J., 1986. "Measuring quality change in quota-constrained import markets: The Case of U.S. Footwear," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(1-2), pages 45-60, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Leffler, Keith B, 1982. "Ambiguous Changes in Product Quality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(5), pages 956-67, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Barzel, Yoram, 1976. "An Alternative Approach to the Analysis of Taxation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 84(6), pages 1177-97, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Juan Carlos Hallak, 2004. "Product Quality, Linder, and the Direction of Trade," NBER Working Papers 10877, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Deborah Swenson, 2005. "Outsourcing Price Decisions: Evidence from U.S. 9802 Imports," NBER Working Papers 11184, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Chengyan Yue & John C. Beghin & Helen H. Jensen, 2005. "Tariff Equivalent of Technical Barriers to Trade with Imperfect Substitution and Trade Costs," Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) Publications 05-wp383, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. James Harrigan & Geoffrey Barrows, 2006. "Testing the Theory of Trade Policy: Evidence from the Abrupt End of the Multifibre Arrangement," NBER Working Papers 12579, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen & Stephen J. Redding & Peter K. Schott, 2007. "Firms in International Trade," NBER Working Papers 13054, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Verhoogen, Eric A., 2007. "Trade, Quality Upgrading and Wage Inequality in the Mexican Manufacturing Sector," CEPR Discussion Papers 6385, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  7. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen & Peter K. Schott, 2006. "Transfer Pricing by U.S.-Based Multinational Firms," NBER Working Papers 12493, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Khandelwal, Amit, 2006. "The Long and Short (of) Quality Ladders," MPRA Paper 4496, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised May 2008. [Downloadable!]
  9. James Harrigan, 2005. "Airplanes and Comparative Advantage," NBER Working Papers 11688, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Didier Laussel & Raymond Riezman, 2006. "Fixed Transport Costs and International Trade," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo GmbH. [Downloadable!]
  11. Eric Verhoogen, 2007. "Trade, quality upgrading and wage inequality in the Mexican manufacturing sector," Discussion Papers 0607-08, Columbia University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  12. Russell Hillberry & David Hummels, 2005. "Trade Responses to Geographic Frictions: A Decomposition Using Micro-Data," NBER Working Papers 11339, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  13. Russell Hillberry & David Hummels, 2002. "Explaining Home Bias in Consumption: The Role of Intermediate Input Trade," NBER Working Papers 9020, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. David Hummels & Volodymyr Lugovskyy, 2005. "Trade in Ideal Varieties: Theory and Evidence," NBER Working Papers 11828, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Combes, Pierre-Philippe & Lafourcade, Miren, 2003. "Core-Periphery Patterns of Generalized Transport Costs: France, 1978-98," CEPR Discussion Papers 3958, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Hasan Faruq, 2006. "New Evidence on Product Quality and Trade," Caepr Working Papers 2006-019, Center for Applied Economics and Policy Research, Economics Department, Indiana University Bloomington. [Downloadable!]
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