bachelorThesis
International Business Travel and Trade: A Case Analysis for Colombia
Autor
Corredor, Daniel Alejandro
Institución
Resumen
Could face to face business interactions boost international trade? This thesis studies the impact of international business travel on trade. The purpose is to grasp information about the performance of business travelers when accessing foreign markets and how different economies can integrate themselves as a result of face to face business interactions, thereby generating trade flows of intermediate and final goods. By employing an instrumental variable approach using panel data, the empirical strategy measures how sensitive Colombian exports and imports are to variations in the amount of Colombians and foreigners traveling for business purposes, this induced by new short-term visa exemptions given by the Colombian and foreign Governments. General results indicate that foreigners have a positive impact on both Colombian exports and imports, but Colombians only significantly affect exports. Besides that, it is seen that Colombians do have an impact on exports to developing countries, but neither imports nor exports are sensitive when they travel to developed countries. Moreover, estimates indicate that when foreigners travel to Colombia, they look for partners to buy Colombian homogeneous intermediate goods and sell foreign final goods (to Colombian buyers). Additionally, my estimates support the idea that business travel is essential for exports of heterogeneousgoods.