Asymmetric Trading Costs and Ancient Greek Cities
52 Pages Posted: 5 Sep 2023
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Asymmetric Trading Costs and Ancient Greek Cities
Asymmetric Trading Costs and Ancient Greek Cities
Abstract
Asymmetric transport costs arise when shipping times from point $i$ to point $j$ differ from shipping from point $j$ to $i$. We show that such asymmetric transport costs predict distinct patterns of location in a class of models using Dixit-Stiglitz preferences, where advantage in import potential is more beneficial than that in export potential. We then study factors affecting the location of cities in Hellas, ancient Greece. Prevailing winds create an environment of asymmetric trade costs in ancient Greece. We show that predictions of these models are consistent with the location of ancient cities. We use 2SLS methods to assess the role of market access measures in determining urban settlements and find significant differences between the coefficients for export and import market access.
Keywords: ancient urbanization, intercity trade, asymmetric trading costs, economic geography, spatial models, transportation networks, network centrality, systems of cities, market access, ancient Greek cities, ancient hellenic world.
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