Trade costs in the first wave of globalization

"We use a new measure of total trade costs at the bilateral country level to examine the change in international trade integration between 1870 and 1913. Trade costs are lowest amongst the most developed countries and highest in the peripheral and poor countries. On average, our measure declined by roughly ten percent during the period declining most slowly in the richest countries. Core-periphery dyads saw the fastest declines. We sort the determinants of trade costs into four main categories: geographic, political, transportation/communications and institutional/cultural. We find that all of these factors play a role in explaining the variation in the data. Transportation costs and other factors related to proximity seem to explain the largest fraction of the variance. Membership in the British Empire and a shared language are also of great importance. Tariffs, and increased exchange rate regime coordination play a strong role too. Finally we find that reductions in trade costs explain roughly 40 percent of the global trade boom. Economic expansion accounts for the rest"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.