This paper calls into question the currently most influential model of international trade. An empirical finding by Trefler (2004, AER) and others that industrial productivity increases more strongly in liberalized industries than in non-liberalized industries has been widely accepted as...

By taking firm heterogeneity in productivity into account in a monopolistic competition market in a general-equilibrium model setting, this paper investigates whether a stricter local content requirements (LCRs) can increase both productivity and production in the domestic intermediate-goods...