The drivers and impediments for cross-border e-commerce in the EU

Estrella Gomez-Herrera uArr;, Bertin Martens 1, Geomina Turlea

Abstract: The rise of the internet is often associated with the lsquo;lsquo;death of distancersquo;rsquo; or at least the decreasing relevance of geographical distance in the supply of information. We investigate whether distance still matters for online trade in physical goods. We use data from an online consumer survey panel on online cross-border trade in goods in a linguistically fragmented

EU market. The analysis confirms that distance-related trade costs are greatly reduced compared to offline trade in the same goods. However, language-related trade costs increase. Moreover, online trade introduces new sources of trade costs such as parcel delivery and online payments systems. On balance, there are no indications that online trade is less biased in favour of home market products than offline trade. We examine options available to policy makers to boost cross-border e-commerce in the EU Digital Single Market. A 1% increase in the use of efficient and flexible cross-border payment systems could increase cross-border e-commerce by as much as 7%. We also show that online trade gives a comparative advantage to English-language exporting countries.

Key words: electronic commerce;The European Union.Trade costs;

This paper empirically investigates the impact of online e-commerce on cross-border trade patterns. The rise of the internet and, more generally, digital communications technology, has led many observers to announce thelsquo;lsquo;death of distancersquo;rsquo; (Cairncross, 1997). In this view, it does not matter anymore where information is located since it is only a mouse click away and information costs are no longer related to physical distance. For traditional offline trade in physical goods however, the evidence actually points to an increase in distance costs (Disdier and Head,2008). Trade is based on a combination of information and physical shipping of goods. The question is whether shifting trade from offline to online platforms makes a sufficiently large dent in information costs to change total trade costs and therefore the pattern of trade in goods. Blum and Goldfarb (2006) show that even for pure information products, distance still plays a significant role. They attribute this to cultural differences that increase with physical distance. Apart from information cost effects,there may be secondary effects that affect trade patterns.Online trade opens up a potentially much larger geographical catchment area, both for suppliers and consumers,

with an increase in variety of available products and in price competition. Both factors would favour a relative shift away from offline and towards online trade. However,new sources of information trade costs may arise online that may slow down or even reverse this trend. New information costs may be attributable to linguistic, cultural and institutional differences and the trade costs related to the operations of e-commerce infrastructure.

There is so far very little research on cross-border e-commerce in physical goods and the interaction between physical trade costs and information costs. The absence of official statistics on cross-border e-commerce in goods has so far limited empirical work on this subject to a few cases

of privileged access to proprietary datasets. We go beyondprevious research that focused on the reduction in distance costs in online trade, either for domestic e-commerce(Hortaccedil;su et al., 2009) or for international trade in information services (Blum and Goldfarb, 2006). We follow Lendle

et al. (2012) who study gravity effects in online cross-border trade in goods, using a proprietary eBay database. This article differs from previous literature in two main respects. First, we use a general online consumer survey that is not linked to a specific e-commerce platform.Second, we focus on intra-EU e-commerce to disentangle he main barriers that still affect the Digital Single Market.Moreover, we combine distance related trade costs with other sources of trade costs to estimate home bias andthe border effect in online trade, building on McCallum(1995), Wolf (2000), Pacchioli (2011).

We apply this framework to a unique dataset of cross-border e-commerce in goods obtained from an online consumer survey (Civic Consulting, 2011) in a linguistically fragmented EU market to explore policy options to boost the EU Digital Single Market. According to the European Commission (2012), ten years after the adoption of the EU E-Commerce Directive, e-commerce is still limited to less than 4% of total European cross-border e-commerce trade and considers that this is far below its full potential.The Commissionrsquo;s Digital Agenda for Europe aims to get50% of all European citizens to buy online and 20% to engage in online cross-border transactions by 2015. The question is whether the potential for cross-border transactions is higher in e-commerce than in offline trade.

We investigate three potential sources of changes in online trade costs, compared to offline trade. First, the shift from ordinary offline trade to internet-enabled online trade may reduce the importance of geographical distance-related trade costs. While distance may no longer matter for information and purely digital products and services (Blum and Goldfarb, 2006), goods still need to be physically transported, and sometimes cross borders between different regulatory regimes, to reach the buyer.Consequently, only part of the total trade costs is affected by the shift from analogue to digital information technology. Second, we assess the role of cultural and institutional factors, such as language and the quality of legal institutions, as determinants of online trade patterns. As distance-related trade costs diminish, the relative importance of other sources of costs may increase. T

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欧盟跨境电子商务的推进和障碍因素

Estrella Gomez-Herrera Bertin Martens Geomina Turlea

摘要：互联网的兴起往往与“距离”的死亡或至少减少地理距离的供应信息的相关性。我们调查距离是否仍然在线有形商品贸易很重要。我们使用数据在线消费者调查小组在线跨境货物贸易语言支离破碎欧盟市场。分析证实,依赖距离的贸易成本很大减少线下贸易相比,在相同的商品。然而,界贸易成本增加。此外,网上贸易引入了新的贸易成本,如包裹的来源交付和在线支付系统。总的来说,没有迹象显示在线贸易是偏袒国内市场产品低于线下交易。我们检查选择在欧盟政策制定者提高跨境电子商务数字单市场。增加1%的使用效率和灵活的跨境支付系统可能会增加跨境电子商务高达7%。我们还表明,在线交易给英语国家出口的比较优势。

关键词：电子商务； 欧盟；贸易成本；

本文实证研究网络电子商务对跨境贸易模式的影响，互联网的崛起，尤其是数字通信技术，使得许多观察人士宣布“死亡的距离”。这个观点认为：无论信息在什么地方，只要点击一下鼠标，信息的成本跟距离的远近没有关系。然而传统的有形商品随距离的增加成本也会增加。贸易是基于信息的组合和物理运输货物。问题在于货物贸易的模式将贸易从线下转移到线上是否很大程度的降低了信息成本和贸易成本。Blum and Goldfarb表示,即使是纯粹的信息产品,距离仍然起着重要的作用。他们把这种现象归因于文化差异,增加物理距离。除了信息成本的影响,影响贸易格局的可能会有副作用。网上贸易开辟了一个潜在的更大地理集结区,包括供应商和消费者,与各种各样的可用的产品和增加价格竞争。这两个因素将支持一个相对从线下向线上转移贸易。然而,网上可能出现新的信息来源的贸易成本这可能减缓甚至扭转这一趋势。新信息成本可能归因于语言,文化制度差异和相关的贸易成本电子商务基础设施的操作。

到目前为止，对跨境电子商务在物理商品和之间的交互物理交易成本和信息成本的研究还很少。官方统计货物跨境电子商务货物数据的缺失限制了在这个问题上的研究。我们超越先前的研究,集中在降低距离成本在网上贸易,国内电子商务或国际贸易信息服务。我们遵循Lendle et al。(2012)研究重力的影响在在线跨境贸易商品,eBay使用专有的数据库。本文不同于以往文献在两个主要方面。首先,我们使用一个通用在线消费者调查,不是与一个特定的电子商务平台。第二,我们专注于欧洲各国电子商务解决仍影响数字单一市场的主要障碍。此外,我们结合距离相关的贸易成本其他来源的贸易成本估计偏差和网上贸易的边界效应,基于McCallum(1995), Wolf (2000), Pacchioli (2011).

我们将这个框架应用到一个独特的数据集的跨境电子商务商品从网上获得消费者调查在语言支离破碎的欧盟市场探索政策选项来提高欧盟单一市场数字。根据欧洲委员会(2012),通过后十年欧盟电子商务指令,电子商务仍局限于不到欧洲跨境电子商务交易总额的4%,认为这是远低于其潜力。欧洲委员会的数字议程旨在获得50%的欧洲公民购买在线和20%在2015年参与在线跨境交易。问题是电子商务的跨境交易的潜力是高于在线下交易。我们调查三个潜在来源网上贸易成本的变化,相比线下交易。首先,从普通的线下贸易转向互联网在线交易可以降低贸易成本相关的地理距离的重要性。虽然距离可能不再重要,纯粹的数码产品和信息服务(布卢姆和戈德法布,2006),货物仍然需要运输,甚至跨越国界之间不同的监管制度,送到买家手中。因此,只影响贸易总成本的一部分从模拟转向数字信息技术。第二,我们评估文化和制度因素的作用,如语言和法律制度的质量,如在线贸易模式的决定因素。随着距离相关的交易成本的降低,其他来源的相对重要性的成本可能会增加。第三,对物理商品在线交易平台需要特定的基础设施,如灵活的在线支付系统和有成本效益的包裹递送系统。我们衡量他们的贡献解释在线贸易模式。最后,我们结合所有这些来源的在线贸易成本的净效果,看看积极的和消极的贡献,以本土偏好的程度或“自然”对国内市场产品的偏好。

我们可以套用马克·吐温说“谣言是极大地反射亢进——死亡的距离事件”。然而,有一些事实在这个谣言。

首先,结果表明,地理的重要性距离强烈减少在线交易,线下贸易相比,由于在数字经济大幅降低信息成本,使消费者能够扫描更大的领土,以满足他们的愿望,把他们的购买订单。另一方面,有一种强烈的增加贸易成本与交叉相关语言的边界。系数的变化值距离和语言是证实了在不同的回归模型。其次,模型,我们跑不属性任何统计学意义的包裹递送成本观察在欧盟的跨境电子商务模式。然而,在线支付系统的效率是一个重要的驱动程序在线跨境贸易在欧盟。这使得政策制定者几乎监管跨境在线交易利润率提高。数据只证明改善在线支付系统之间的兼容性和互操作性是朝着正确方向迈出的一步。第三,提供详细的结果初步表明本土偏好不明显不同的在线市场相比,传统的线下交易。尽管降低信息成本扩大国外市场消费者,促进购买,消费者仍然也有强烈的倾向去买在家里。语言障碍当然在这里起着重要的作用,但是其他尚未观察到的变量也可能是部分原因。欧盟政策制定者固定数字议程方面的电子商务政策目标增加卷的在线跨境贸易。这可能是令人惊讶的,因为贸易只是一种手段来提高消费者福利,本身不是目的。电子商务可以通过降低交易成本,提高消费者福利增加供应和价格竞争的多样性。我们的数据不允许调查这些福利效应虽然我们可以假定网络贸易的数量是一个很好的消费者的感知利益的代理指标。从这个意义上说,电子商务政策遵循欧盟离线单一市场的脚步,旨在减少贸易壁垒,促进跨境贸易刺激价格竞争和增加供应的多样性。电子商务极大地降低运输成本的信息。这开辟了一个更广泛的消费者和供应商的地理集结区。不过,本文显示(跨境)电子商务仍然受到贸易壁垒;不仅在物理方面交付成本和监管障碍还新的贸易成本引起的语言市场细分和在线支付系统。

在线消费者支出的总量可能会随着时间的增加更多的消费者变得更加自信和网上购物,网上购物的更大份额。增长潜力的一个重要限制是网上购物篮子的构成。消费者调查数据,我们使用表明,该严重偏向有限数量的货物如电子、服装、音乐、电影和其他一些物品。网上购物篮子整个消费品篮子大为不同,可能因为其他类型的货物不会让自己那么容易网上贸易。还需要进一步的研究来解释成分和限制的在线消费篮子和探索扩大范围的商品可以在网上交易。即使网上购物的总量仍有相当大的增长潜力,重力模型表明,国内国外网上购物的比例可能不会改变,因为它是被语言碎片在欧盟市场。因为除了欧盟27个国家外只有36个国家共用一种语言,在线零售商想要扩大海外业务强烈建议有各种语言版本的网站。然而,很难看出语言可能会成为政策制定者的工具变量。

最后要注意的一个点是，这种分析是基于一个欧盟消费者调查数据集,提供了一些独特的见解的价值和方向在线欧盟国家之间的跨境贸易。显然,这些数据没有相同的有效性更全面和详细的离线的国际货物贸易统计数据,积累了多年来。他们提供见解但更多的努力将不得不进入建设更全面和可靠的在线跨境贸易的数据集,将使更详细和严格的测试驱动程序和在线跨境贸易障碍。进一步的工作将包括更多的细节在特定于产品的跨境贸易,运输成本、价格和信息成本。

外文文献出处：《Information Economics and Policy》

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