We propose a data-based approximation of the effects of trade sanctions. We validate the approximation by comparing it with exact responses simulated from a canonical multi-country multi-sector model. The approximation is palatable for a broad range of elasticities of substitution, except for...

This paper argues that the typical practice of performing growth decompositions based on log-transformed productivity values induces fallacious conclusions: using logs may lead to an inaccurate aggregate growth rate, an inaccurate description of the microsources of aggregate growth, or both. We...

The exact distribution of a quadratic form in n standard normal variables, Q; say, (or, equivalently, a linear combination of independent chi-squared variates) is, except in special cases, quite complicated. This has led to many proposals for approximating the distribution by a more tractable...