The lumpiness of German exports and imports of goods

Joachim Wagner

No 2016-19, Economics Discussion Papers from Kiel Institute for the World Economy

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: lumpiness of trade; imports; exports; Germany (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-int
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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http://www.economics-ejournal.org/economics/discussionpapers/2016-19
https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/140889/1/859616630.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The lumpiness of German exports and imports of goods (2016)
Working Paper: The Lumpiness of German Exports and Imports of Goods (2016)
Working Paper: The Lumpiness of German Exports and Imports of Goods (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:ifwedp:201619

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