IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/upf/upfgen/879.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

On the accuracy of Latin American trade statistics: A nonparametric test for 1925

Author

Listed:
  • M. del Mar Rubio Varas
  • Mauricio Folchi

Abstract

This paper proposes a nonparametric test in order to establish the level of accuracy of the foreign trade statistics of 17 Latin American countries when contrasted with the trade statistics of the main partners in 1925. The Wilcoxon Matched-Pairs Ranks test is used to determine whether the differences between the data registered by exporters and importers are meaningful, and if so, whether the differences are systematic in any direction. The paper tests for the reliability of the data registered for two homogeneous products, petroleum and coal, both in volume and value. The conclusion of the several exercises performed is that we cannot accept the existence of statistically significant differences between the data provided by the exporters and the registered by the importing countries in most cases. The qualitative historiography of Latin American describes its foreign trade statistics as mostly unusable. Our quantitative results contest this view.

Suggested Citation

  • M. del Mar Rubio Varas & Mauricio Folchi, 2005. "On the accuracy of Latin American trade statistics: A nonparametric test for 1925," Economics Working Papers 879, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    • Handle: RePEc:upf:upfgen:879
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://econ-papers.upf.edu/papers/879.pdf
    File Function: Whole Paper
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yeats, Alexander J, 1990. "On the Accuracy of Economic Observations: Do Sub-Saharan Trade Statistics Mean Anything?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 4(2), pages 135-156, May.
    2. Yehuda Don, 1968. "Comparability of International Trade Statistics: Great Britain and Austria-Hungary before World War I," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 21(1), pages 78-91, April.
    3. Yáñez, César & Carreras, Albert & Hofman, André A. & Tafunell, Xavier, 2003. "El desarrollo económico de América Latina en épocas de globalización. Una agenda de investigación," Estudios Estadísticos 4723, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    4. van Bergeijk, Peter A G, 1995. "The Accuracy of International Economic Observations," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 1-20, January.
    5. Yáñez, César & Carreras, Albert & Folchi, Mauricio & Hofman, André A. & Rubio, Mar & Tafunell, Xavier, 2006. "Importaciones y modernización económica en América Latina durante la primera mitad del siglo XX: las claves de un programa de investigación," Estudios Estadísticos 4748, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    6. Rozanski, Jerzy & Yeats, Alexander, 1994. "On the (in)accuracy of economic observations: An assessment of trends in the reliability of international trade statistics," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 103-130, June.
    7. Basim Makhoul & Samuel Otterstrom, 1998. "Exploring the accuracy of international trade statistics," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(12), pages 1603-1616.
    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. Mar Rubio & Mauricio Folchi, 2005. "The apparent consumption of fossil energy as an indicator of modernisation in Latin America by 1925: a proposal using foreign trade statistics," Working Papers 5056, Economic History Society.

    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. Charles D. Brummitt & Andres Gomez-Lievano & Ricardo Hausmann & Matthew H. Bonds, 2018. "Machine-learned patterns suggest that diversification drives economic development," Papers 1812.03534, arXiv.org.
    2. Ng, Francis & Yeats, Alexander, 1997. "Open economies work better! did Africa's protectionist policies cause its marginalization in world trade?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 889-904, June.
    3. Mar Rubio & Mauricio Folchi, 2005. "The apparent consumption of fossil energy as an indicator of modernisation in Latin America by 1925: a proposal using foreign trade statistics," Working Papers 5056, Economic History Society.
    4. Shaar, Karam, 2017. "Reconciling International Trade Data," MPRA Paper 81572, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Berger, Helge & Nitsch, Volker, 2008. "Gotcha! A Profile of Smuggling in International Trade," Conference papers 331735, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    6. Shaar, Karam, 2019. "Essays on modern economic issues in international trade, exchange rates and housing," Working Paper Series 8039, Victoria University of Wellington, School of Economics and Finance.
    7. Nitsch, Volker, 2011. "Trade Mispricing and Illicit Flows," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 77397, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    8. Svedberg, Peter, 1999. "841 Million Undernourished?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 27(12), pages 2081-2098, December.
    9. repec:vuw:vuwecf:16724 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Behar, Alberto & Edwards, Lawrence, 2011. "How integrated is SADC ? trends in intra-regional and extra-regional trade flows and policy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5625, The World Bank.
    11. Rauch, James E., 1999. "Networks versus markets in international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 7-35, June.
    12. Christian Elleby & Wusheng Yu & Qian Yu, 2018. "The Chinese Export Displacement Effect Revisited," IFRO Working Paper 2018/02, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.
    13. Mirco Tonin, 2014. "Reporting import tariffs (and other taxes)," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(1), pages 153-173, February.
    14. Temesgen Worku & Juan P. Mendoza & Jacco L. Wielhouwer, 2016. "Tariff evasion in sub-Saharan Africa: the influence of corruption in importing and exporting countries," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 23(4), pages 741-761, August.
    15. Jan Willem Gunning & Paul Collier, 1999. "Explaining African Economic Performance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 37(1), pages 64-111, March.
    16. Jenkins, Rhys & Edwards, Lawrence, 2013. "Is China "crowding out" South African exports of manufacturers," SALDRU Working Papers 107, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    17. Emmanuel Ekow Asmah & Francis Kwaw Andoh & Edem Titriku, 2020. "Trade misinvoicing effects on tax revenue in sub‐Saharan Africa: The role of tax holidays and regulatory quality," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 91(4), pages 649-672, December.
    18. Saka, Umut Mete & Duzgun, Sebnem & Bazilian, Morgan D., 2024. "Analysis of world trade data with machine learning to enhance policies of mineral supply chain transparency," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    19. Cervera-Ferri, José Luis & Escaith, Hubert, 2007. "The millennium development goals: strategic implications for the Latin American and Caribbean statistical systems," Estudios Estadísticos 4749, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    20. Antonio Tena Junguito, 1992. "Las estadísticas históricas del comercio internacional: fiabilidad y comparabilidad," Estudios de Historia Económica, Banco de España, number 24, November.
    21. Fielding, David & Shields, Kalvinder, 2001. "Modelling macroeconomic shocks in the CFA Franc Zone," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 199-223, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Latin America; statistical accuracy; international trade data; nonparametric methods; petroleum trade; coal trade.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N73 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • C14 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Semiparametric and Nonparametric Methods: 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:upf:upfgen:879. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.econ.upf.edu/ .

    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.