Abstract: Based on the Anderson and Wincoop (2003) model, this paper deduces a general equilibrium model to measure a country’s import and export trade costs, which has a better microscopic application base than the currently frequently-used Novy (2006) model. On the basis of this derived model, this paper conducts a measurement of the cost level of China’s cultural products export trade from 1998 to 2013, and conducts a test on the factors affecting the export trade cost. The results show that China’s cultural products export trade cost is on the decline as a whole, its exports trade cost and the difficulty to developing economies is lower than that to developed economies. Such factors between China and its trading partners as the differences of the real per capita income, geographic distance, cultural differences, average nominal tariff levels, foreign trade openness, net terms of trade and so on are positively correlated with China’s cultural products export trade costs; while such factors as the RMB real effective exchange rate, land adjacency and preferential trade arrangements, etc., are negatively correlated. The traditional geographic distance is a factor having a significant effect on China’s cultural products export trade cost.

Key words: cultural products; export trade cost; measurement