Maritime (general cargo) import and export functions:: The Spanish case

In this paper we present an analysis of the determinants of Spanish maritime imports and exports, in the context of Spain's integration into the European Union and taking into account the modifications that this has meant for its international trade. We have applied the Johansen and Juselius multivariate techniques of cointegration in order to examine the relationship, in the long-run, between maritime exports and imports and diverse macroeconomic variables. We also highlight the significant explanatory power of the prices of maritime transport services, whose elasticity increases in time after the period of Spain's accession to the E.U. Following this we applied the new techniques of cointegration of Shin, obtaining similar results to the previous ones. Finally, we have specified, taking into account the simultaneity of the exports and imports in the short-run, a dynamic model for both functions.