Highlights The causal relationship between air passenger travel and trade connections in Asia-Pacific is highly heterogeneous. Recent developments in Granger causality allow assessing this heterogeneity. There are no causal relations in the case of connections between ‘developed economies’. Causality runs from travel to trade for connections between ‘developed and less developed’ countries. Causality runs from trade to travel for countries that have long adopted liberal air transport policies.

    Abstract This paper explores the potential of heterogeneous Granger analysis in transport geography research by applying this method to a specific case of the often complex and potentially reciprocal linkages between the deployment of transport infrastructures and spatial economic development: the linkages between rising intra-regional volumes of trade and air passenger traffic in Asia-Pacific. Although conceptual and empirical linkages between both indicators can be assumed based on previous research, relatively little is known about the actual causality. Using heterogeneous Time Series Cross Section Granger causality analysis for the period 1980–2010, we explore the presence of four ‘causality scenarios’ amongst different country-pairs: (1) there is no co-evolution, implying that both patterns develop independently (e.g. Japan–Australia); (2) there is ‘real’ co-evolution in that both patterns influence each other through feedback loops (e.g. South Korea–Philippines); (3) air passenger traffic is facilitated by trade (e.g., South Korea–Philippines); or (4) trade is facilitated by air passenger traffic (e.g. Australia–Malaysia). Some tentative interpretations of this heterogeneity are offered.


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    Title :

    Exploring causality in trade and air passenger travel relationships: the case of Asia-Pacific, 1980–2010


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2013-01-01


    Size :

    9 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English