Banu Demir Pakel

Trade Costs Matter

Although containerisation provides a cheaper and more efficient method of transporting goods over long distances, the share of containerised trade (for containerisable goods) has not even reached 70 percent of world trade. In a recent working paper, Banu Demir Pakel seeks to understand the determinants of containerisation choice in international shipping using detailed micro-level trade data. The empirical analysis reveals that a large proportion of the variation in container usage is accounted for by differences between firms exporting a given product to a given destination country.

During her visit at CESifo, Ms Demir Pakel will continue working on this research project, in collaboration with Kerem Coşar (Stockholm School of Economics). The project aims to enhance our understanding of trade costs faced by countries in participating in global value chains.

Banu Demir Pakel's areas of interest are international trade and development, with a focus on trade financing and transportation costs. Her current research aims to explore the role of trade financing in shaping firm-level export performance and to look into the "black box" of international trade costs. Her ongoing research includes: "Grin and Bear It: Producer-Financed Exports from an Emerging Market", "Risk-Based Capital Requirements for Banks and International Trade", as well as "To Box, or Not To Box: Determinants of Containerization".

Banu Demir Pakel is Assistant Professor of Economics at Bilkent University, Ankara. She holds a DPhil in Economics from the University of Oxford, an MA in Economics from Bilkent University and a BSc in Economics from Middle East Technical University in Ankara. Between 2006 and 2008, she worked as a Research Analyst at the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) unit at the World Bank. Ms Demir Pakel has also served as a consultant for the World Bank on various projects.