Liner shipping bilateral connectivity and its impact on South Africa’s bilateral trade flows

Jan Hoffmann, Naima Saeed () and Sigbjørn Sødal
Additional contact information
Jan Hoffmann: UNCTAD
Naima Saeed: University of Agder
Sigbjørn Sødal: University of Agder

Maritime Economics & Logistics, 2020, vol. 22, issue 3, No 7, 473-499

Abstract: Abstract Since shipping connectivity reduces trade costs, which in turn improves trade, this paper aims to analyse the short- and long-run impacts of the liner shipping bilateral connectivity on South Africa’s trade flows. In addition to connectivity, measured by five separate components, we also consider the effects on trade of sailing distances, the direct (air) distance and the gross domestic product (GDP) of 142 trading partners. We apply the quasi-maximum likelihood method to estimate the parameters of a dynamic panel data model. The results show that GDP, the number of common direct connections and the level of competition have a positive and significant effect on trade flows, while the number of transshipments and the direct and sailing distances have a negative and significant impact, both in the short and long run. The estimated long-run effects are stronger than the short-run effects, suggesting that shippers take time to adjust their demand to changes in connectivity. The variable maximum ship size does not seem to have a positive bearing on trade, suggesting that countries may not need to try to accommodate ever larger ships to maintain their foreign trade competitiveness.

Keywords: Liner shipping bilateral connectivity; Bilateral trade; South Africa; Gross domestic product; Quasi-maximum likelihood estimation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41278-019-00124-8 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:marecl:v:22:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1057_s41278-019-00124-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... nt/journal/41278/PS2

DOI: 10.1057/s41278-019-00124-8

Access Statistics for this article

Maritime Economics & Logistics is currently edited by Hercules E. Haralambides

More articles in Maritime Economics & Logistics from Palgrave Macmillan, International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().