Exploring the relationships between maritime connectivity, international trade and domestic production

• The objective of this paper is to simultaneously analyse the complex relationships between bilateral maritime connectivity, bilateral trade and domestic production as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. This is achieved by applying non-recursive models and Path Analysis (PA). The top ten best maritime connected countries and their 155 trading partners are selected for the analysis. The components of maritime connectivity, maritime distance, and gravity variables are selected as instrumental variables to analyse the reciprocal relationship between export/import of ten countries and the GDP per capita of their 155 trading partners. The results confirm the reciprocal relationship between export values (that are the import values of trading partners) and GDP per capita, whereas a reciprocal relationship between import values (that are the export values of trading partners) and GDP per capita does not exist. The results also confirm the complexity of the relationships between maritime connectivity, trade and economic growth and that, compared to components of maritime connectivity, none of the gravity variables have a positive impact on bilateral trade. The results suggest that economic policy and trade policy at the global, regional, and national level should recognize the need for, and foster, better maritime connectivity.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Samhällsbyggnadsteknik -- Transportteknik och logistik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Civil Engineering -- Transport Systems and Logistics (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Maritime connectivity

bilateral trade

economic growth

non-recursive

models

path analysis

gravity variables

economic-growth

identifiability

performance

transport

openness

scale

costs

Transportation

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)