Containerized freight imports into the US are growing at an average of 10% per year. This traffic is concentrated at a small number of US seaports. It is therefore important to have an accurate understanding of the flow of containers from their origin country through these seaports to their final destination. This paper develops an optimization model to estimate route flows and a corresponding …
As freight transport flows grow continuously, developing better quantitative models for forecasting future trade flows becomes more important. Trade flows can be estimated by discrete choice theory, leading to gravity models formulations. At a given point in time, trade flows may also be affected by long-term contracts or simply trading habits. This leads to situations where only a fraction of …
This paper analyses the international grain trade flow by using the gravity equation of trade. On the basis of microeconomic theory and the new trade theory, the gravity equation of trade is used to examine grain exports and imports between pairs of countries. One of the main purposes of this paper is to examine how the grain trade is affected by economic factors, population, and country develo…