In this paper, we revisit the evidence on the effects of time spent on border-crossing procedures for international trade using a theory-consistent structural gravity model. We exploit a rich panel dataset including domestic trade flows and employ a recent econometric estimator that exhibits favorable asymptotic properties for inference. The results indicate a significant negative effect of the time required for border procedures that is driven by the time needed for document preparation. We find that an additional day spent on those procedures corresponds to an ad valorem tariff equivalent of 0.4 percentage points. The parameters of our structural model are used to simulate three counterfactual scenarios, quantifying the effect of past and potential future trade facilitation efforts for middle-, low-, and high-income countries. Full endowment general equilibrium effects suggest that in times of stagnating multilateral and bilateral trade liberalization efforts, unilateral implementation of trade facilitation carries the potential to induce an alternative stimulus for trade and welfare, especially for low- and middle-income countries.

中文翻译：

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重新审视作为贸易壁垒的时间：来自面板结构引力模型的证据

在本文中，我们使用理论一致的结构引力模型重新审视了有关时间对国际贸易过境程序的影响的证据。我们利用了一个丰富的面板数据集，包括国内贸易流量，并采用了最近的计量经济学估计器，该估计器表现出有利的渐近性进行推理。结果表明，边境程序所需的时间对文件准备所需的时间产生了显着的负面影响。我们发现，在这些程序上多花费一天相当于相当于 0.4 个百分点的从价关税。我们的结构模型的参数用于模拟三种反事实情景，量化过去和未来潜在的中等收入、低收入和高收入国家贸易便利化努力的影响。