Transportation Costs and Globalization: "Changes in transportation technology have reduced transportation costs substantially helping to fuel the globalization process. Since digital technology is also a means of reducing transportation costs - email is cheaper and faster than air mail - globalization has been facilitated by the ability to move goods and services across borders at a reduced cost. Virginia Postrel discusses the sharp decline in international shipping costs in her last Economic Scene for the New York Times:



The Container That Changed the World By Virginia Postrel, Economic Scene, NY Times: The political showdown over a Dubai company's plan to operate terminals at six American ports briefly focused public attention on one of the most significant, yet least noticed, economic developments of the last few decades: the transformation of international shipping. Just as the computer revolutionized the flow of information, the shipping container revolutionized the flow of goods. ... By sharply cutting costs and enhancing reliability, container-based shipping enormously increased the volume of international trade and made complex supply chains possible.

'Low transport costs help make it economically sensible for a factory in China to produce Barbie dolls with Japanese hair, Taiwanese plastics and American colorants, and ship them off to eager girls all over the world,' writ"