About

Dr. Russell Hillberry is a Professor of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University. His research focuses on issues related to farm policy, land use, and rural community dynamics. He has contributed to understanding the community level impacts of wind energy development in Indiana and has examined landowner perceptions of wind energy, highlighting his interest in rural resilience and sustainable land management. Dr. Hillberry's work also encompasses broader agricultural economic topics, including farmland market dynamics and the societal implications of agricultural and energy policies. His expertise supports the Farm Policy Study Group at Purdue, where he engages in discussions and presentations on current agricultural and rural community issues.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Statistical physics
• Psychology
• International trade
• Mathematics
• Economics
• Geometry
• Physics
• Business
• Management
• International economics
• History
• Econometrics
• Statistics
• Law
• Mathematical analysis

Selected publications

• Replication package for Geographic Disadvantage and the Composition of Trade

  Open MIND · 2026-03-27

  datasetSenior author

  <p>This folder contains all the required information to replicate all tables in the paper titled "Geographic Disadvantage and the Composition of Trade" by Russell Hillberry and Manuel I. Jimenez.</p> <p>The dataset contains international trade flow data at the combination of country/region and HS6-digit product for a sample of 205 regions and 5,044 HS6-digit product codes in 2017. The source is CEPII (2024). The data is laid out in two separate databases. One database includes only export flow data, and the other, all import flow data. Both databases also include supplementary variables that are identical except for the market access variables we construct below.</p> <p>Each database includes two dummy variables denoting whether or not a country is landlocked or a small island, respectively. The landlocked dummy is sourced from CEPII (2024), while the island dummy takes a value of 1 when a country is surrounded by water, has no land borders, and has a GDP of less than US$200 billion, and zero otherwise. The databases also contain data on other country characteristics. Countries’ per capita income and population in 2015 are taken from CEPII (2024), with missing observations replaced with data from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, United Nations or selected national statistical agencies. U.S. consumer price index from BLS (2024) is also used to deflate countries’ per capita income and express it in 2017 dollars. Additionally, each database includes a dummy variable reporting the membership status in the World Trade Organization (WTO). Likewise, it includes a regions’ market access measures, calculated in a manner similar to that proposed in Redding and Venables (2004). The export database contains regions seller market access variables; the import database contains regions’ buyer market access variables.</p> <p>Each database also includes four product characteristic variables, three characteristics related to transportation and one related to products’ production line position. One transport characteristic denotes the 2015 value share of the products’ U.S. imports (ex Canada and Mexico) that is moved by air, another the 2015 share arriving in a container, and third the products’ 2015 weight-to-value ratio, expressed in 2017 dollars using the U.S. consumer price index from BLS (2024). All these variables are calculated using U.S. import data sourced from the U.S. Census. The production line position variable is a dummy variable that indicates whether the product is a final good or an upstream input. This variable takes the value of 1 – indicating that a HS6-digit product is a final good – when the upstreamness measure of Antràs et al. (2012) is less than or equal to 1.3, and zero otherwise.</p> <p>This dataset also includes the code and data used to estimate the market access measures. The database used as inputs into this exercise are a sample of the International Trade and Production Database for Estimation (ITPD-E) Release 3 (Borchert et al., 2021; Larch et al., 2025). The included sample excludes services trade flows and only considers trade flows among countries in the CEPII (2024) database for 2015. The sample also includes the bilateral distance between every pair of countries and an adjacency dummy variable that takes the value of 1 when two countries share borders, and zero otherwise. The source of these variables is CEPII (2024). The database also includes a “Home” dummy variable takes the value of 1 for the ITPD-E domestic flows (imputed from production) in each country, and zero otherwise.</p> <p>The dataset is in .dta format, and the provided code files are in .do format. All files can be opened in Stata.</p> <p> </p> <p>References</p> <p>Antràs, P., D. Chor, T. Fally, and R. Hillberry (2012). Measuring the Upstreamness of Production and Trade Flows. American Economic Review 102(3), 412–416. American Economic Association.</p> <p>Borchert, I., M. Larch, S. Shikher, and Y. V. Yotov (2021). The International Trade and Production Database for Estimation (ITPD-E). International Economics 166, 140–166.</p> <p>BLS. (2024). Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI‑U). U.S. Department of Labor. Available from <a href="https://www.bls.gov/cpi/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">https://www.bls.gov/cpi/</a> accessed in December, 2024.</p> <p style="text-align:justify; margin-bottom:11px"><span style="font-size:11pt"><span style="line-height:107%"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="line-height:107%"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">CEPII (2024). BACI: International Trade Database at the Product-Level at HS2002. Centre d’Etudes Prospectives et d’Informations Internationales. Available from </span></span></span><a href="https://tinyurl.com/ycpycu9k" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="line-height:107%"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times="">https://tinyurl.com/ycpycu9k</span></span></span></a><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><span style="line-height:107%"><span new="" roman="" style="font-family:" times=""> accessed in February, 2024.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p>International Monetary Fund. (2024). World Economic Outlook Database. Available from <a href="https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDPDPC@WEO/OEMDC/ADVEC/WEOWORLD" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">https://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDPDPC@WEO/OEMDC/ADVEC/WEOWORLD</a> accessed in March, 2024.</p> <p>Larch, M., S. Shikher, and Y. Yotov (2025). The International Trade and Production Database for Estimation-Release 3 (ITPD-E-R03). USITC Working Paper 2025–06–A.</p> <p>Redding, S. and A. J. Venables (2004). Economic Geography and International Inequality. Journal of International Economics 62 (1), 53–82.</p> <p>St Helena Government. (2023). Statistical Bulletin 5, 2023: Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Available from <a href="https://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/statistical-bulletin-5-2023-gross-domestic-product-gdp/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">https://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/statistical-bulletin-5-2023-gross-domestic-product-gdp/</a> accessed in December, 2025.</p> <p>Statistics Netherlands. (2025). Caribbean Netherlands; gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Available from <a href="https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/figures/detail/85251ENG" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/figures/detail/85251ENG</a> accessed in December, 2025.</p> <p>United Nations. (2024). UN Data Portal. United Nations Data. Available from <a href="https://data.un.org/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">https://data.un.org/</a> accessed in March, 2024.</p> <p>U.S. Census Bureau (2018). U.S. Imports Merchandise Trade Flows. Data files available from Peter Schott’s web page <a href="https://sompks4.github.io/sub_data.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">https://sompks4.github.io/sub_data.html</a> accessed in September and October, 2018</p> <p>World Bank. (2014). World Development Indicators. Available from <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">https://data.worldbank.org/indicator</a> accessed in March, 2024.</p>

  DOI

• Economic Consequences of Cabotage Restrictions: The Effect of the Jones Act on Puerto Rico

  World Bank policy research working paper · 2024-05-21 · 2 citations

  bookOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This paper studies the consequences of a U.S. cabotage law for Puerto Rico (PR). Data on ship arrivals in PR show that the fleet of U.S. vessels that call there lacks capacity for carrying non-containerized freight. Empirical estimation using trade data shows that PR’s imports of sea-shipped final products are biased against U.S. mainland sources. This bias is strongest for heavy products and products not typically shipped in containers. Among upstream products, a strong bias against imports of sea-shipped products applies to all sources. Estimated tariff-equivalent costs among final products imply static annual welfare losses of 1.1 percent of household consumption ($203 per person). The same tariff-equivalent cost estimates imply that the law raises the cost of investment in PR by 3.0 percent. The observed bias against sea-shipped inputs in PR’s imports may result from long-run industry location decisions that have been influenced by the law's presence.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The geography of payment activity on <scp>PayPal</scp>

  Review of International Economics · 2023-06-21 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract We use data from PayPal to study the geography of online payment activity. An empirical gravity model finds a distance elasticity of −0.58 for payment value, a result that is 40% lower than typically observed in conventional trade data. The firm‐extensive margin is approximately half as sensitive to distance. The link between the scale of merchants' exports and transaction distance is considerably weaker than observed in conventional international trade data. Zipf's Law holds for PayPal merchants in some countries, but fails in smaller PayPal markets. Merchants' account ages only marginally affect the scale and average distance of their export sales.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Variable Scaling and Hypothesis Testing in the Gravity Model

  2023 · 3 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Econometrics
  • Mathematics
  • Statistical physics
  PublisherDOI

• A Cross-country Assessment of Commitment Behavior in the Trade Facilitation Agreement

  AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · 2021-04-13

  article1st authorCorresponding

  We use a new database of commitments made during the process of ratifying the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) to study variation in countries’ commitment behavior. The TFA is a novel World Trade Organization agreement because it allows developing countries to select commitments from a menu of best practices in trade facilitation, rather than to consent, or not, to a comprehensive package of negotiated commitments. The operation of this á la carte approach to concluding trade agreements is worthy of study in its own right, but the commitment data also offer a high-level description of progress in an international effort to improve border management procedures around the globe. Our study uses data on TFA commitments to describe progress across subcomponents of the agreement. A regression model shows that the number of Type A trade facilitation commitments that a country made in the TFA ratification process depends on its level of development, its population size, and its past receipts of foreign aid to support trade facilitation. We use multi-dimensional scaling techniques to study differences in the content of national commitment bundles. This approach demonstrates that variation in the content of countries’ commitments is closely tied to the number of commitments made.

  Publisher

• Commitment behaviour in the World Trade Organization's Trade Facilitation Agreement

  World Economy · 2021 · 13 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Sociology
  • International trade

  Abstract We use a new database of commitments made during the process of ratifying the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) to study variation in countries’ commitment behaviour. The TFA is a novel World Trade Organization agreement because it allows developing countries to select commitments from a menu of best practices in trade facilitation, rather than to consent, or not, to a comprehensive package of negotiated commitments. The operation of this á la carte approach to concluding trade agreements is worthy of study in its own right, but the commitment data also offer a high‐level description of progress in an international effort to improve border management procedures around the globe. Our study uses data on TFA commitments to describe progress across subcomponents of the agreement. A regression model shows that the number of Type A trade facilitation commitments that a country made in the TFA ratification process depends on its level of development, population size, ability to control corruption and foreign aid received to support trade facilitation. We use multidimensional scaling techniques to study differences in the content of national commitment bundles. This approach demonstrates that variation in the content of countries’ commitments is closely tied to the number of commitments made.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Risk Management in Border Inspection

  Journal of Development Economics · 2021-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Tom Hertel’s Influence and Its Lessons about Academic Inquiry

  World Scientific Studies in International Economics · 2020-12-17

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Fields of academic inquiry differ in their preferred forms of output, in the ways in which knowledge is accumulated and stored, and so in the ways that academic influence is measured. We compare Tom Hertel’s research record to other international economists of his generation in order to illustrate the unique breadth and influence of his work and of the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) broadly. We then provide an analytical framework that helps to explain the evolution of the field of international economics from a tool-use standpoint. This framework helps us to assess the academic productivity gains from creating the GTAP model and consortium. It also provides a possible answer to a significant puzzle: why is GTAP increasingly influential in the physical and biological sciences, but less so within the international economics community?

  PublisherDOI

• Risk Management in Border Inspection

  World Bank, Washington, DC eBooks · 2020-10-01 · 2 citations

  bookOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  As part of their commitments under the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade Facilitation, many developing countries are set to adopt risk management, a strategy for selecting import shipments for inspection. This paper formalizes key enforcement issues related to risk management. It argues that the complexities of international trade oversight mean that inspecting agencies lack certainty about the conditional probability that a given shipment will not comply with import regulations. Ambiguity of this sort is likely to be important in developing countries that lack the sophisticated information technology (IT) used in advanced risk management systems. This paper show empirically that infrequent shipments have conditionally higher inspection rates, a finding that is consistent with the ambiguity hypothesis. This paper formalizes a role for ambiguity in a theoretical model of border inspection. Finally, the paper calibrates the model and shock the ambiguity parameters to illustrate the consequences of an IT -driven improvement in risk management capabilities for search and compliance.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Implicit Utility and the Canonical Gravity Model

  AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · 2020-04-15

  article1st authorCorresponding

  The primary advantage of structural approaches to estimating the gravity model of trade is that they allow a transparent mapping of regression coefficients to structural parameters. Unfortunately, existing structural estimation methods are unable to separately identify trade costs and the trade elasticity without incorporating external data. We demonstrate that theoretical structure is alone sufficient for identifying all of the structural parameters of the canonical constant elasticity of substitution (CES) gravity model. We accomplish this by adopting an implicitly indirect representation of utility and estimating structurally using a mathematical program with equilibrium constraints. Our estimate of the elasticity of substitution is much smaller than in much of the rest of the literature, an outcome that we attribute to Pigou’s Law, which ties income and substitution elasticities together in demand systems that assume additive preferences. This restriction is undesirable in demand systems, generally, and is a critical weakness for the canonical gravity model, a model that is commonly used to interpret the geographic trade pattern and to infer the welfare gains from trade.

  Publisher

Frequent coauthors

• Thibault Fally

  National Bureau of Economic Research

  46 shared

• Edward J. Balistreri

  University of Nebraska–Lincoln

  24 shared

• Alejandra Mendoza Alcántara

  Sustainable Development Institute

  13 shared

• Ana M. Fernandes

  13 shared

• David Hummels

  12 shared

• Anca Cristea

  10 shared

• Aaditya Mattoo

  10 shared

• Thomas F. Rutherford

  8 shared

Awards & honors

• James C. Snyder Memorial Lecture
• AGEC Distinguished Ag Alumni
• Purdue Agricultural Economics Report
• Purdue Indiana Land Values & Cash Rents