Weight and Value x Distance: Studying Global Supply Chain Use and Cost

In June 2023, Sharat Ganapati, an Assistant Professor of International Economics at Georgetown University and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and Woan Foong Wong, Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Oregon, wrote a research paper that was published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives.

Titled How Far Goods Travel: Global Transport and Supply Chains from 1965-2020, the paper takes a new look at global transportation. Unlike traditional trade metrics, which often fail to reflect the role of distance, they examine transportation usage worldwide by weight and value as well as distance. 

In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner takes on the rewarding challenge of digesting the key findings expressed in this highly relevant academic paper:  

• How transport use has changed since 1965
• How transport costs have changed
• What the combination of the two, and other associated factors, mean for the future of supply chain efficiency and resilience

Links:

• Read: How Far Goods Travel: Global Transport and Supply Chains from 1965–2020
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