In this paper, we test some propositions about international trade flows that are derived from a model of monopolistic competition developed by Elhanan Helpman. We investigate whether the volume of trade between OECD countries is consistent with the predictions of a modal in which all trade is...

Trade taxes are often used as (a) a first-best instrument to manipulate the terms-of-trade, or (b) a second-best instrument to correct pre-existing market distortions. We analyze the (in)effectiveness of trade taxes at achieving these two policy goals. To this end, we derive sufficient...