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Modeling freight markets for coal

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Abstract

In this paper we study bulk shipping of coal between the central regions in the world. We compare the performance of cost-minimizing models with a gravity model approach. The main finding in the paper is that cost minimizing models provide relative poor fits to data. A simple one-parameter gravity model, however, provides very satisfactory fits to observed behavior.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank two anonymous referees for several useful suggestions to improve the paper.

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Correspondence to Jan Ubøe.

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Ubøe, J., Andersson, J., Jörnsten, K. et al. Modeling freight markets for coal. Marit Econ Logist 11, 289–301 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1057/mel.2009.10

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