TY - JOUR

T1 - The Lumpiness of German Exports and Imports of Goods

AU - Wagner, Joachim

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © Author(s) 2016.

PY - 2016/8/30

Y1 - 2016/8/30

N2 - This paper looks at a hitherto neglected extensive margin of international trade by investigating for the first time the frequency at which German exporters and importers trade a given good with a given country. Imports and exports show a high degree of lumpiness. In a given year about half of all firm-good-country combinations are recorded only once or twice for trade with EU-countries, and this is the case for more than 60 percent of all firm-good-country combinations in trade with non-EU countries. The frequency of recorded transactions tends to decline with an increase in the number of transactions per year. This is in accordance with the presence of per-shipment fixed costs that provide an incentive for trading firms to engage in cross-border transactions infrequently. Empirical models show that for Germany the frequency of transactions at the firm-good-country level tends to decrease with an increase in per-shipment costs when unobserved firm and goods characteristics are controlled for.

AB - This paper looks at a hitherto neglected extensive margin of international trade by investigating for the first time the frequency at which German exporters and importers trade a given good with a given country. Imports and exports show a high degree of lumpiness. In a given year about half of all firm-good-country combinations are recorded only once or twice for trade with EU-countries, and this is the case for more than 60 percent of all firm-good-country combinations in trade with non-EU countries. The frequency of recorded transactions tends to decline with an increase in the number of transactions per year. This is in accordance with the presence of per-shipment fixed costs that provide an incentive for trading firms to engage in cross-border transactions infrequently. Empirical models show that for Germany the frequency of transactions at the firm-good-country level tends to decrease with an increase in per-shipment costs when unobserved firm and goods characteristics are controlled for.

KW - Economics

KW - Exports

KW - Germany

KW - Imports

KW - Lumpiness of trade

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84989830073&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.5018/economics-ejournal.ja.2016-21

DO - 10.5018/economics-ejournal.ja.2016-21

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 10

SP - 1

EP - 38

JO - Economics

JF - Economics

SN - 1864-6042

M1 - 2016-21

ER -