IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cii/cepidt/2010-23.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

BACI: International Trade Database at the Product-Level. The 1994-2007 Version

Author

Listed:
  • Guillaume Gaulier
  • Soledad Zignago

Abstract

This paper documents the construction of BACI, our international trade database, which covers more than 200 countries and 5,000 products, between 1994 and 2007. New approaches have been developed to reconcile data reported by almost 150 countries to the United Nations Statistics Division, collated via COMTRADE. When both exporting and importing countries report to Comtrade, we have two different figures for the same flow, so it is useful to reconcile these into a single figure. To do this, firstly, as import values are reported CIF (cost, insurance and freight) while exports are reported FOB (free on board), transport and insurance rates have to be estimated and removed from import values. We regress the observed CIF/FOB ratios for a given flow on gravity variables and a product-specific world median unit value. In a second step we evaluate the reliability of countries reporting. We decompose the absolute value of the ratios of mirror flows using a (weighted) variance analysis. These measures of the reliability of reported data are used as weights in the reconciliation of each bilateral trade flow which is reported twice. Taking advantage of this bilateral information on each flow, we end up with a large coverage of countries and more reliable data, especially in terms of unit-values. BACI is freely available online to users of COMTRADE database, in different product classifications.

Suggested Citation

  • Guillaume Gaulier & Soledad Zignago, 2010. "BACI: International Trade Database at the Product-Level. The 1994-2007 Version," Working Papers 2010-23, CEPII research center.
    • Handle: RePEc:cii:cepidt:2010-23
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.cepii.fr/PDF_PUB/wp/2010/wp2010-23.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Guillaume Gaulier & Soledad Zignago, 2002. "La discrimination commerciale revelee comme mesure desagregee de l'acces aux marches," Economie Internationale, CEPII research center, issue 89-90, pages 262-280.
    2. Angela Cheptea & Lionel Fontagné & Soledad Zignago, 2014. "European export performance," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 150(1), pages 25-58, February.
    3. Jean Imbs & Isabelle Mejean, 2015. "Elasticity Optimism," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(3), pages 43-83, July.
    4. Lionel Fontagné & Michael Freudenberg & Guillaume Gaulier, 2006. "A Systematic Decomposition of World Trade into Horizontal and Vertical IIT," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 142(3), pages 459-475, October.
    5. Anne-Célia Disdier & Silvio Tai & Lionel Fontagné & Thierry Mayer, 2010. "Bilateral trade of cultural goods," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 145(4), pages 575-595, January.
    6. Disdier, Anne-Celia & Fontagne, Lionel & Mimouni, Mondher, 2007. "The Impact of Regulations on Agricultural Trade: Evidence from SPS and TBT Agreements," Working Papers 18869, TRADEAG - Agricultural Trade Agreements.
    7. Robert C. Feenstra & Robert E. Lipsey & Haiyan Deng & Alyson C. Ma & Hengyong Mo, 2005. "World Trade Flows: 1962-2000," NBER Working Papers 11040, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. GAULIER, Guillaume & LEMOINE, Francoise & UNAL-KESENCI, Deniz, 2007. "China's emergence and the reorganisation of trade flows in Asia," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 209-243.
    10. Ecochard, Pierre & Fontagné, Lionel & Gaulier, Guillaume & Zignago, Soledad, 2005. "Intra-industry trade and regional integration," MPRA Paper 44182, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Guillaume Gaulier & Isabelle Méjean, 2006. "Import Prices, Variety and the Extensive Margin of Trade," Working Papers 2006-17, CEPII research center.
    12. Lionel Fontagné & Guillaume Gaulier & Soledad Zignago, 2008. "Specialization across varieties and North-South competition," Economic Policy, CEPR;CES;MSH, vol. 23, pages 51-91, January.
    13. Laszlo Matyas, 1997. "Proper Econometric Specification of the Gravity Model," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(3), pages 363-368, May.
    14. Arie ten Cate, 2007. "Modelling the reporting discrepancies in bilateral data," CPB Memorandum 179, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    15. Alan Matthews & Jacques Gallezot, 2006. "The role of EBA in the political economy of CAP reform," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp133, IIIS.
    16. Simon J. Evenett & Wolfgang Keller, 2002. "On Theories Explaining the Success of the Gravity Equation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(2), pages 281-316, April.
    17. Mayer, Thierry & Zignago, Soledad, 2006. "Notes on CEPII’s distances measures," MPRA Paper 26469, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Fontagne, Lionel & Laborde, David & Mitaritonna, Cristina, 2008. "An Impact Study of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) in the Six ACP Regions," 2008 International Congress, August 26-29, 2008, Ghent, Belgium 44194, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    19. I-Hui Cheng & Howard J. Wall, 2005. "Controlling for heterogeneity in gravity models of trade and integration," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Jan, pages 49-63.
    20. Robert C. Feenstra, 1996. "U.S. Imports, 1972-1994: Data and Concordances," NBER Working Papers 5515, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Lionel Fontagné & David Laborde & Cristina Mitaritonna, 2008. "An Impact Study of the EU-ACP Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) in the Six ACP Regions," Working Papers 2008-04, CEPII research center.
    22. Robert C. Feenstra & Robert E. Lipsey & Harry P. Bowen, 1997. "World Trade Flows, 1970-1992, with Production and Tariff Data," NBER Working Papers 5910, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    23. Anne-Célia Disdier & Keith Head, 2008. "The Puzzling Persistence of the Distance Effect on Bilateral Trade," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(1), pages 37-48, February.
    24. Antoine Bouët & Yvan Decreux & Lionel Fontagné & Sébastien Jean & David Laborde, 2008. "Assessing Applied Protection across the World," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(5), pages 850-863, November.
    25. Johnson, Robert C., 2012. "Trade and prices with heterogeneous firms," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 43-56.
    26. Angela Cheptea & Guillaume Gaulier & Soledad Zignago, 2004. "The World Market: Market Shares and Export Performances," La Lettre du CEPII, CEPII research center, issue 231.
    27. Nanno Mulder & Rodrigo Paiilacar & Soledad Zignago, 2009. "Market Positioning of Varieties in World Trade: is Latin America Losing Out on Asia?," Working Papers 2009-09, CEPII research center.
    28. Robert C. Feenstra & John Romalis & Peter K. Schott, 2002. "U.S. Imports, Exports, and Tariff Data, 1989-2001," NBER Working Papers 9387, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    29. David Hummels & Volodymyr Lugovskyy, 2006. "Are Matched Partner Trade Statistics a Usable Measure of Transportation Costs?," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(1), pages 69-86, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    More about this item

    Keywords

    International trade; Trade costs; CIF/FOB; Trade data reconciliation;

    JEL classification:

    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • C80 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - General

    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:cii:cepidt:2010-23. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (). General contact details of provider: http://edirc.repec.org/data/cepiifr.html .

    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 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.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.