Both the theoretical and the empirical literature on international trade agree that quantitative restrictions on trade have an impact on the average quality of exports. Yet, in evaluating (ex-ante) trade policy effects, there are no studies tiling into account the role of the change in quality....

In this paper we illustrate the possible normative relevance of the links between human capital and financial assets via an example related to growth. When the financial structure is complete, growth is indeterminate because individual allocations between human capital and a tradable asset are...

Voting games are characterized by the emergence of dominated strategies, that would be iteratively deleted by rational players. In this note we show, via an example, how applying iterated dominance restricts the set of equilibrium outcomes in Besley and Coate (1997) citizencandidate model of...

This paper presents firm level evidence on the change of non-manual wage premia and employment shares in Italian manufacturing during the nineties. We find that the relative stability of aggregate wage premia and employment shares hides offsetting disaggregate forces. First, while technical...

We study the effects ''globalization'' on wage inequality. Our ''global'' economy resembles Rosen (1981) ''Superstars'' economy, where a) innovations in production and communication technologies enable suppliers to reach a larger mass of consumers and to improve the (perceived) quality of their...

Recent evidence shows that the "home bias puzzle" in international trade may be associated with the mere presence of national borders (McCallum (1995)). In this paper we provide a theoretical framework to explain why borders may matter so much for trade. Our argument is that even between...

Several developed countries are witnessing a trend towards an increasing gap in the earnings between skilled and unskilled workers. Though it is widely recognised that human capital formation programs through education and training should be strengthened in the presence of increasing wage...

This paper presents firm level evidence on the dynamics of nonmanual wage premia and employment shares in Italian manufacturing during the nineties. We find that the relative stability of aggregate wage premia and employment shares hides offsetting disaggregate forces. First, while technical...

We introduce incomplete contracts in a model where multinational firms from a certain country ("North") can decide to serve a foreign market ("South") through exports or through horizontal foreign direct investment (FDI). FDI relies on the supply of specialized intermediate inputs that could be...