We investigate the heterogeneous effects of productivity dispersion on firms' organizational choices, depending upon sectoral characteristics. Using trade data on imports from non-related parties (outsourcing) and related parties (integration) in the South, we show that productivity dispersion...

This research adopts the heterogeneous-firm approach to analyze how technical barriers to trade (TBT) imposed by China affect its imports. The empirical analysis is based on a sample covering China's import control measures (e.g. TBT, tariff, license and quota) of all harmonized system (HS)...

This paper offers an explanation of why, in Imperial China, the merchant class expanded and the economy modernized up to the 13th century, and why it entered into decline from the 14th century onward. The modernization of China required the accumulation of public capital and the building of good...

An intrinsic feature of a pre-modern society is in its fragmentary markets. Fragmentary markets are more likely to fail in the coordination of resource allocation. However, if a concentrated market is exogenously formed and the market could provide the only price to local markets, the market can...

Using a general equilibrium model, this paper examines the employment and welfare effects of minimum wages coupled with capital taxes in a small open economy. The individual and joint optimal policies for a minimum wage and capital taxes are derived and explained. Specifically, policy reform to...

Using the Heckscher–Ohlin–Samuelson–Vanek (HOSV) framework, this paper illustrates a relationship between corruption and the pattern of international trade that depends on the factor endowments of countries. The relationship between trade openness and corruption is empirically investigated...

Financial crises have been attributed to rising income inequality via its induced high household leverage as observed in the USA and similar economies. Alternatively it has been suggested this is not a general relationship since it was found that inequality had no bearing on crises in 14...

This paper examines Official Development Assistance (ODA) in the aftermath of large natural disasters between 1970 and 2008. Using an event-study approach, the paper finds that while the median increase in ODA is 18% compared with pre-disaster flows, the typical surge is small in relation to the...

This paper examines strategic investment subsidies in an international oligopoly. A general oligopoly model is constructed in which firms compete in two stages and governments commit to investment subsidies prior to firms' actions. The paper considers asymmetry among firms that arises from the...

The paper constructs a general equilibrium model of North–South trade with nontraded goods, real exchange rate, and a continuum of components that North partly offshores to South. It is shown that a protectionary policy which restricts offshoring may have the unintended consequence of widening...