Open AccessThe determinants of world wheat trade, 1963-2010: A gravity equation approach
Author(s) -
Ángel Luis González Esteban,
Ángel Luís
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
historia agraria
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2340-3659
pISSN - 1139-1472
DOI - 10.26882/histagrar.083e05g
Subject(s) - gross domestic product , gravity model of trade , gravity equation , per capita , world trade , international trade , economics , production (economics) , bilateral trade , international economics , trade volume , agricultural economics , business , china , geography , macroeconomics , population , demography , archaeology , sociology
The international configuration of the world wheat trade has undergone sig-nificant transformations over the past fifty years. The volume of total wheattrade has increased fivefold, new exporting leaders have appeared and a largeimport market has emerged in less developed countries. The aim of this paper is to iden-tify the main drivers of those changing patterns. For that purpose, we estimated a grav-ity equation based on data for bilateral trade flows. Information on the wheat trade wasobtained from the UN-COMTRADE database (2014). We also accessed other sourcesto include explanatory variables such as gross domestic product (GDP) of the export-ing and importing countries, GDP per capita, wheat production, different measures ofcultural distance and proximity, current trade agreements, etc. The results are discussedand interpreted using a cliometric approach.