Latest / The Productivity Podcast with Fexingo: Output, Efficiency, and Long-Term Economic Growth
How One Canal Doubled a Country's GDP
In 1914, the Panama Canal opened and did something no other infrastructure project has ever matched: it permanently shifted global trade patterns and created an entirely new category of economic productivity. In this episode, Lucas and Luna unpack a single number from a 2023 World Bank study—the canal's contribution to global shipping efficiency represents roughly 2.5 percent of world trade volume, or about $270 billion annually at today's values. They trace how the canal's lock system, originally designed for 1910s-era ships, became the bottleneck for modern productivity, and…
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