Estimating international trade status of countries from global liner shipping networks

Maritime shipping is a backbone of international trade and thus the world economy. Vessels travel from a port of one country to another on networks of ports to carry cargos, which contribute to countries' international trade values. We hypothesize that ports that involve transshipment activities serve as a third-party middleman to mediate trade between two foreign countries and contribute to the corresponding country's status in international trade. We test this hypothesis using a port-level data set of global liner shipping services. We propose two indices that quantify the importance of countries in the global liner shipping network and show that they explain a large amount of variation in the international trade value and related measures of individual countries. These results support a long-standing view in maritime economics, which has yet been directly tested, that countries that are strongly integrated into the global maritime transportation network have enhanced access to global markets and trade opportunities.