IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/econjl/v130y2020i629p1262-1287..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

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.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ej/ueaa023
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. George Alessandria & Joseph P. Kaboski & Virgiliu Midrigan, 2010. "Inventories, Lumpy Trade, and Large Devaluations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(5), pages 2304-2339, December.
    2. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2004. "Trade Costs," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(3), pages 691-751, September.
    3. Giulia Brancaccio & Myrto Kalouptsidi & Theodore Papageorgiou, 2017. "Geography, Search Frictions and Endogenous Trade Costs," NBER Working Papers 23581, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Behrens, Kristian & Gaigné, Carl & Thisse, Jacques-François, 2009. "Industry location and welfare when transport costs are endogenous," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 195-208, March.
    5. Thomas J. Holmes & James A. Schmitz, 2001. "Competition at work : railroads vs. monopoly in the U.S. shipping industry," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 25(Spr), pages 3-29.
    6. Behrens, Kristian & Picard, Pierre M., 2011. "Transportation, freight rates, and economic geography," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(2), pages 280-291.
    7. Alfonso Irarrazabal & Andreas Moxnes & Luca David Opromolla, 2015. "The Tip of the Iceberg: A Quantitative Framework for Estimating Trade Costs," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(4), pages 777-792, October.
    8. David Hummels & Alexandre Skiba, 2004. "Shipping the Good Apples Out? An Empirical Confirmation of the Alchian-Allen Conjecture," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(6), pages 1384-1402, December.
    9. David Hummels, 2007. "Transportation Costs and International Trade in the Second Era of Globalization," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(3), pages 131-154, Summer.
    10. Blain, Bodil Bjerkvik, 2006. "Melting markets: the rise and decline of the Anglo-Norwegian ice trade, 1850-1920," Economic History Working Papers 22471, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    11. Hornok, Cecília & Koren, Miklós, 2015. "Administrative barriers to trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(S1), pages 110-122.
    12. Donaldson, Dave & Atkin, David, 2015. "Who?s Getting Globalized? The Size and Implications of Intra-national Trade Costs," CEPR Discussion Papers 10759, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Paul Krugman, 1998. "Space: The Final Frontier," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 161-174, Spring.
    14. Robert C. Feenstra & John Romalis, 2014. "International Prices and Endogenous Quality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(2), pages 477-527.
    15. Theodore Papageorgiou & Myrto Kalouptsidi & Giulia Brancaccio, 2017. "Geography, Search Frictions and Trade Costs," 2017 Meeting Papers 1105, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    16. Douglass C. North, 1968. "Sources of Productivity Change in Ocean Shipping, 1600-1850," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 76, pages 953-953.
    17. Giulia Brancaccio & Myrto Kalouptsidi & Theodore Papageorgiou, 2020. "Geography, Transportation, and Endogenous Trade Costs," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(2), pages 657-691, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    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

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


    Cited by:

    1. Chen, Natalie & Juvenal, Luciana, 2022. "Markups, quality, and trade costs," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. repec:ptu:bdpart:r202401 is not listed on IDEAS

    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. Dominik Boddin & Frank Stähler, 2018. "The Organization of International Trade," CESifo Working Paper Series 7378, CESifo.
    2. Hayakawa, Kazunobu & Ishikawa, Jota & Tarui, Nori, 2020. "What goes around comes around: Export-enhancing effects of import-tariff reductions," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    3. Coşar, A. Kerem & Demir, Banu, 2018. "Shipping inside the box: Containerization and trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 331-345.
    4. Asturias, Jose, 2020. "Endogenous transportation costs," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    5. 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.
    6. Jota Ishikawa & Nori Tarui, 2015. "Backfiring with backhaul problems: Trade and Industrial Policies with Endogenous Transport Costs," Working Papers 201514, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Department of Economics.
    7. Guillaume Daudin & Jérôme Héricourt & Lise Patureau, 2022. "International Transport costs: New Findings from modeling additive cost," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-03538476, HAL.
    8. Pablo D. Fajgelbaum & Edouard Schaal, 2020. "Optimal Transport Networks in Spatial Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(4), pages 1411-1452, July.
    9. Benjamin Bridgman, 2013. "Market entry and trade weighted import costs," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 46(3), pages 982-1013, August.
    10. Ishikawa, Jota & Tarui, Nori, 2018. "Backfiring with backhaul problems," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 81-98.
    11. Felix L. Friedt & Wesley W. Wilson, 2020. "Trade, transport costs and trade imbalances: An empirical examination of international markets and backhauls," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(2), pages 592-636, May.
    12. Ardelean, Adina & Lugovskyy, Volodymyr, 2023. "It Pays to be big: Price discrimination in maritime shipping," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    13. Alexander Sandkamp & Vincent Stamer & Shuyao Yang, 2022. "Where has the rum gone? The impact of maritime piracy on trade and transport," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 158(3), pages 751-778, August.
    14. Lashkaripour, Ahmad, 2020. "Weight-based quality specialization," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    15. Chen, Natalie & Juvenal, Luciana, 2022. "Markups, quality, and trade costs," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    16. Charlotte Emlinger & Viola Lamani, 2020. "International trade, quality sorting and trade costs: the case of Cognac," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 156(3), pages 579-609, August.
    17. Krolikowski, Pawel M. & McCallum, Andrew H., 2021. "Goods-market frictions and international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    18. César Ducruet & Réka Juhász & Dávid Krisztián Nagy & Claudia Steinwender, 2019. "All Aboard: The Aggregate Effects of Port Development," Working Papers 1160, Barcelona School of Economics.
    19. Bernardo Blum & Sebastian Claro & Kunal Dasgupta & Ignatius Horstmann, 2016. "Distribution Costs, Product Quality, and Cross-Country Income Differences," Working Papers tecipa-556, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    20. Hornok, Cecília & Koren, Miklós, 2015. "Administrative barriers to trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(S1), pages 110-122.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    iceberg transport costs; nineteenth-century Boston ice trade; economies of scale;
    All these keywords.

    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

    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:oup:econjl:v:130:y:2020:i:629:p:1262-1287.. 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: Oxford University Press or the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/resssea.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.