International Logistics: Does It Matter in Foreign Trade?

Economic globalization provides a good channel for the development of foreign trade around the world. Due to this background, this paper sets the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries as a sample to explore the importance of international logistics in foreign trade. An annual panel data from 2000 to 2017 will be used to conduct an empirical estimation under the panel unit root test and the fixed effect model. Foreign trade is treated as an explained variable and international logistics is treated as explanatory variables. The findings show that international logistics have a positive spillover effect on export trade and the speed of international logistics development has a regulatory effect on the relationship between both of them, which presents a U-shaped curve. When the speed of international logistics development is slow, an increase of it restrains the positive spillover effect of international logistics on export trade. However, when it rises to a certain extent, this increase releases the positive spillover effect of international logistics on export trade. As can be seen by the evidence that this paper provides, the impact of international logistics on foreign trade is dynamic. Moreover, this paper also puts forward some corresponding measures about the relationship between both of them.