The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Exploring the Duration of EU Imports

På svenska

Author

Summary, in English

The objective of this paper is to perform an empirical description and analysis of the duration of EU imports from the rest of the world. Toward this aim, we employ a rich data set of detailed imports to individual EU15 countries from 140 non-EU exporters, covering the period 1962-2006. Using these data, we both perform a thorough descriptive analysis of the duration of EU trade, and test the data in a regression analysis, using discrete-time duration models with proper controls for unobserved heterogeneity. Some interesting empirical findings emerge in our analysis. First, we find that EU imports from the rest of the world are very short-lived. The median duration of EU imports is merely one year. Moreover, almost 60 percent of all spells cease during the first year of service, and less than ten percent survive the first ten years. Second, we find that short duration is a persistent characteristic of trade throughout the extended time period that we study. Third, we find a set of statistically significant determinants of the duration of trade. Among the more interesting determinants is export diversification, which – both in terms of the number of products exported and the number of markets served with the

given product – substantially lowers the hazard of trade flows dying. For instance, exporting a particular product to ten rather than one EU markets increases the probability of surviving the first year of trade in any given trade relationship by as much as 31 percentage points (from 33% to 64%).

Publishing year

2011

Language

English

Pages

665-692

Publication/Series

Review of World Economics

Volume

147

Issue

4

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Springer

Topic

  • Economics

Keywords

  • Duration of Trade
  • Survival
  • European Union
  • Discrete-Time Hazard Models

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1610-2878