Product Reproducibility and International Trade Patterns: Evidence from Cultural Goods
Product Reproducibility and International Trade Patterns: Evidence from Cultural Goods
(Under review)
Abstract
International trade research recognizes that products differ systematically in their responses to gravity-model determinants, yet the role of product reproducibility remains largely unexplored. This study conceptualizes product reproducibility as a distinct dimension of product heterogeneity and examines whether it systematically conditions gravity-model relationships.
Using bilateral trade data for 190 countries during 1995–2023, products are classified into unique cultural, reproducible cultural, and non-cultural categories. Separable Temporal Exponential Random Graph Models (STERGMs) and Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood (PPML) estimation are employed to examine trade-tie formation, persistence, and trade intensity. The results show that more reproducible products exhibit weaker sensitivity to trade frictions, stronger conformity to gravity-model predictions, and more stable trade relationships. These findings suggest that product reproducibility constitutes an important dimension of product heterogeneity, with implications for structural gravity models and product-level trade analysis.