China's growth record since the start of its economic reforms in 1978 has been extraordinary. Yet, this impressive performance has been associated with an increasing regional income disparity. We use a recently developed nonparametric approach to analyze the variation in labor productivity...

This paper develops a fully-endogenous, variety-expansion growth model with firm-specific quality heterogeneity, limit pricing, and an endogenous distribution of markups. Trade induces only firms with high-quality products to export, whereas firms with low-quality products serve only the...

The empirical relationship between trade protection and economic growth is surprisingly fragile, as shown in a number of other papers. After demonstrating this empirical sensitivity, we address one possible explanation for these findings: that the relationship is nonlinear. Following the...

In this paper, I analyze the time paths of the efficiencies of skilled and unskilled labor in aproduction framework where skilled and unskilled labor are imperfect substitutes. Theirimplications for economic growth and wage inequality in the US between 1950 and 2005present two main findings....

I investigate the long-run implications of trade and technology diffusion through trade, when firms are heterogeneous and trade is costly. The paper integrates firm heterogeneity and trade into product innovation growth models from endogenous growth theory. Two specifications of the R&D process...