Published in:ZEW - Centre for European Economic Research Discussion Paper ; No. 20-061
Extent:
1 Online-Ressource (28 p)
Language:
English
DOI:
10.2139/ssrn.3732072
Identifier:
Origination:
Footnote:
Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments 2020 erstellt
Description:
In this paper,employing Transaction Level data for Russian imports,we explore the role of multi-product shipments in explaining shipping patterns across countries. First, we document that firms from more developed countries include on average more different products into a single shipment. We then show that such multi-product shipments can potentially explain why more developed countries tendtohaveahighernumberofshipmentsperperiodwithaloweraveragequantity and value. The mechanism considered in the paper is based on that multi-product shipments allow splitting fixed costs per shipment across many products and, therefore, reducing total shipment costs. As a result, more developed countries tend to have lower fixed costs per shipment. Finally, we construct a simple partial equilibrium model that enables us to quantify the role of multi-product shipments in determining shipping costs