Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/240498 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
IFN Working Paper No. 1355
Publisher: 
Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN), Stockholm
Abstract: 
The strong negative relationship between geographical distance and trade is not well understood. I use the liberalization of the Soviet airspace to estimate the causal impact of business travel cost on trade. The liberalization radically reduced travel time between Europe and East Asia and was associated with a significant increase in trade. I find that the cost of business travel can account for most of the trade frictions (85.3%) that cause trade to sharply decline with distance. A plausible explanation for these results is that face-to-face interaction through business travel is important for trade, and that transporting people is costly.
Subjects: 
Trade costs
Air travel
Face-to-face communication
JEL: 
F14
F15
R40
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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