Graduation Year
2026
Date of Submission
12-2025
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Economics
Reader 1
Professor William Lincoln
Abstract
This paper updates the evidence on how distance affects international trade. I assemble 2,700 distance elasticities from 197 gravity model studies, combining the original Disdier and Head (2008) dataset with 94 newer papers, to test whether the effect of distance has weakened in recent decades. The results show no decline. Across specifications, modern estimates remain strongly negative, and studies using post-1980 data often report larger elasticities than those from earlier periods. Methodological improvements such as PPML, the treatment of zero flows, and multilateral resistance controls do not produce systematically smaller distance effects. Descriptive patterns also show that recent estimates cluster tightly around values between –1.0 and –0.6 with no downward trend.
Recommended Citation
Dhanani, Nathan, "The Persistence of the Distance Effect in Trade: Updated Meta-Analysis" (2026). CMC Senior Theses. 4293.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/4293
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
