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Ice(berg) Transport Costs

Author

Listed:
  • Maarten Bosker
  • Eltjo Buringh

Abstract

Iceberg transport costs are a key ingredient of modern trade and economic geography models. Using detailed information on Boston’s nineteenth-century global ice trade, we show that the cost of shipping the only good that truly melts in transit is not well-proxied by this assumption. Additive cost components account for the largest part of per unit ice(berg) transport costs in practice. Moreover, the physics of the melt process and the practice of insulating the ice in transit meant that shipping ice is subject to economies of scale. This finding supports, from an unexpected historical angle, recent efforts to incorporate more realistic features of the transportation sector in trade and economic geography models.

Suggested Citation

  • Maarten Bosker & Eltjo Buringh, 2020. "Ice(berg) Transport Costs," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 130(629), pages 1262-1287.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:econjl:v:130:y:2020:i:629:p:1262-1287.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ej/ueaa023
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    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. What’s an “iceberg commuting cost”?
      by jdingel in Trade Diversion on 2019-10-28 18:14:15

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Ma, Meilin & Delgado, Michael S. & Wang, H. Holly, 2024. "Risk, arbitrage, and spatial price relationships: Insights from China's hog market under the African Swine Fever," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    2. repec:ptu:bdpart:r202401 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. repec:ptu:bdpart:e202401 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Chen, Natalie & Juvenal, Luciana, 2022. "Markups, quality, and trade costs," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    5. Yang, Xuebing, 2024. "Bulkiness of goods and the gravity of international trade: Differential impact of trade barriers," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(4).
    6. Damiaan Persyn & Javier Barbero & Jorge Díaz‐Lanchas & Patrizio Lecca & Giovanni Mandras & Simone Salotti, 2023. "The ripple effects of large‐scale transport infrastructure investment," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(4), pages 755-792, September.
    7. Ting Ding & Wenzhong Zhu & Ming Zhao, 2022. "Does Cross-Border Logistics Performance Contribute to Export Competitiveness? Evidence from China Based on the Iceberg Transport Cost Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.
    8. João Amador & Carlos Melo Gouveia & Ana Catarina Pimenta, 2024. "Transport modes in Portuguese international trade: Insights from firm-level data," Economic Bulletin and Financial Stability Report Articles and Banco de Portugal Economic Studies, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    9. Guillaume Daudin & Jérôme Héricourt & Lise Patureau, 2022. "International transport costs: new findings from modeling additive costs [Inventories, lumpy trade, and large devaluations]," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 22(5), pages 989-1044.

    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • N70 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services - - - General, International, or Comparative
    • N51 - Economic History - - Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Extractive Industries - - - U.S.; Canada: Pre-1913

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