We ask whether production related subsidies have a role to play in explaining Chinesefirms' export performance. We, firstly, implement an estimation approach that allows for both direct and indirect ("spillover") effects of the subsidy on the probability to export. Secondly, our approach enables...

Examining a standard monopolistic competition model with unspecified utility/cost functions, we find necessary and sufficient conditions on their elasticities for welfare losses to arise from trade or market expansion. Two numerical examples explain the losses (under unrealistic elasticities).

Combining Balassa–Samuelson effects with strategic complementarities between prices of tradables and non-tradables yields a novel determinant of tradables’ prices. A larger productivity difference between tradables and non-tradables raises the non-tradables’ price. With strategic...

We modify Paul Krugman’s (1991) ‘Core–Periphery’ model by replacing the traditional competitive sector with a monopolistically competitive one. We show that the structure of spatial equilibria remains the same as in the original model. This result continues to hold true under Cournot or...

This paper analyzes the effects of international trade on the relative demand for skilled workers in Italian local labor markets. We find that exports cause a sizable skill upgrading in the labor force by increasing the average level of education of the workforce and the share of white-collars...

Price dispersion of US imports are investigated across US districts of entry. Markups explain about 31% of price dispersion, while marginal costs of production explain about 69%; effects of trade costs, for which we have actual data, are almost none.

Constant unit manufacturing costs are lower (higher) in high wage North when inputs are (i) tradeable, (ii) country-specific and (iii) the elasticity of substitution between them is below (above) one. A two-country model of firm entry/location is considered.

In recent years models with a nested constant elasticity of substitution utility function and heterogeneous firms involved in some form of competition have become popular in the international trade literature. This paper considers one particular model of this class — with firms competing in...

A heterogeneous-firm trade model can explain the recent decrease in exchange rate pass-through to aggregate US import prices as a result of decreased trade costs. This paper finds support for this explanation by testing another implication of this type of heterogeneous firm model: lower...

In this paper, I empirically examine the non-monotonic relationship between openness and within-group wage inequality predicted by  Helpman et al. (2010) using a panel data for the US, 1983–2005. Within-group wage inequality is measured for each industry and matched with exports. It can be...