Transportation Sector and Their Impact on International Trade

Research Project

Project/Area Number	22K13380
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Review Section	Basic Section 07040:Economic policy-related
Research Institution	Hitotsubashi University
Principal Investigator	Han Zheng 一橋大学, 社会科学高等研究院, 特任助教 (30906904)
Project Period (FY)	2022-04-01 – 2023-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2022)
Budget Amount *help	¥4,550,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,050,000) Fiscal Year 2026: ¥390,000 (Direct Cost: ¥300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥90,000) Fiscal Year 2025: ¥520,000 (Direct Cost: ¥400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥120,000) Fiscal Year 2024: ¥390,000 (Direct Cost: ¥300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥90,000) Fiscal Year 2023: ¥1,820,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥420,000) Fiscal Year 2022: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000)
Keywords	Nonlinear Pricing / Heterogeneous Firm / Shipping Industry / Infrastructure / Internal Trade Cost
Outline of Research at the Start	This research project aims to test the assumptions and predictions of the theoretical framework developed by Han(2020) to confirm the cause of nonlinear pricing empirical regularity and build a quantifiable framework to assess the magnitude of this phenomenon on both trade literature and real life.
Outline of Annual Research Achievements	I complete the first stage target of the research project which is testing the assumptions and predictions of the theoretical framework to confirm the cause of the empirical regularity and finish writing the complete draft of four papers, one out of which is already published. I published the paper entitled "Transportation Infrastructure and Trade" at Japan and the World Economy. I am submitting one of the working papers entitled Price Discrimination in the Transport Industry and the Gains from Trade to the journal and circulating the others in the academic conferences for further improvements. Methodology-wise the project provides a new theoretical trade model capable to accommodate more stylized facts. Then it uses available data to unravel the cause of the nonlinear pricing phenomenon, on top of which, the project offers a quantifiable framework to assess the world real issue.