This paper aims to explain why some consumers may rationally object to free trade. I describe a differentiated-goods economy in which agents differ in their preferences across categories of goods. Due to increasing returns in production the number of goods produced in a given category depends on...

We study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on euro area inflation and how it compares to the experiences of other countries, such as the United States, over the two-year period 2020-21. Our model-based calibration exercises deliver four key results: (1) compositional effects, or the switch...

We use detailed information from U.S. consumers' credit card purchases to provide the first large scale description of the geography of consumption. We find that consumers' mobility is quite limited and document significant heterogeneity in the importance of gravity across sectors. We develop a...

There is no doubt that protectionism costs. But it is less clear exactly how much it costs and who pays. And while protectionism results in a deadweight loss — there are more losers than winners — some individuals and groups gain from protectionism. And it is those who stand to gain who have...

We examine import prices paid by direct-sourcing Indian manufacturing firms in the early 2000s using a unique data set that matches firm characteristics with product and source-country trade data, offering a theoretical and empirical extension of Halpern and Koren (2007). We find that import...

There is a growing interest in cross-border medical care and its comparative advantages. In addition, medical care can be defined as a local assurance good. Little research is being carried out in this field. This paper discusses the individual considerations for medical treatment offered at...

Using data from Taiwan's Yahoo! auctions of Nikon cameras, this paper investigates whether there exists any difference in transaction results between commodities which are sold by authorized sellers and those which are parallel imports. We find that the parallel imports and the authorized...

Consumers are often skeptical about purchasing foreign products and many voters are resistant to economic globalization. To better understand the factors underlying these trends, we consider consumers' intuitive understanding of international trade. We find that consumers are intuitive...

This paper estimates the impact on Canadian retailers' revenues of significantly decreased international travel by Canadians in response to the Covid-19 related travel restrictions imposed on the US-Canada border. We use detailed data from 1991 to 2020 on Canadians' travel to the United States...