The Review of Economics and Statistics Vol. 106 No. 4 2024

The Effects of Transit Systems on International Trade

Jerónimo Carballo¹; Alejandro Graziano²; Georg Schaur³; Christian Volpe Martincus⁴

¹ University of Colorado Boulder · ² University of Nottingham · ³ University of Tennessee and CESifo · ⁴ Inter-American Development Bank and CESifo

Abstract

In this paper, we estimate the trade effects of a transit system upgrading that streamlines border processing in developing countries. Our empirical approach combines transaction-level export data from El Salvador with unique data that distinguishes export flows that were processed on the transit system. Our results indicate that the new transit system lowered regulatory border costs and raised exports. At the low end, our back-of-the-envelope estimate of the return to investment is US$ 3-to-1. This evidence informs a policy covered by the 2013 WTO Agreement of Trade Facilitation.

DOI

10.1162/rest_a_01189

Volume

106

Issue

4

Pages

1083-1098

Language

en

Sources

openalex bibtex:phds-export.bib crossref

Cite

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