This paper analyses the relationship between firm productivity and export behavior in German manufacturing firms. We examine whether productivity increases the probability of exporting, and assert that there is a causal relationship from high productivity to entering foreign markets, as...

The paper develops a three-sector general equilibrium model with two informal sectors with complete mobility of labour between these sectors and with a positive relationship between wage income and labour's efficiency to show that the results relating to foreign capital inflow and removal of...

In a production structure reasonable for a developing economy this note shows that there may arise a conflict between the worldwide liberalized trade policies in agriculture, which raise the price of the economy’s primary exportable commodity, and the inflow of foreign capital into the...

Protection unconstrained by rules often varies substantially over time. Rules-based disciplines, such as WTO tariff bindings and bindings on market access in services, constrain this variability. We examine the theoretical effects of such constraints on the expected cost of protection and offer...

This paper argues that seasonal fluctuations in international trade are large and have non-trivial effects on a country's resource allocation, production, and welfare. Using U.S. quarterly data, we find fluctuations of as much as 43% and 15% for apparel imports and exports respectively, and 7%...

The current slump in world coffee prices is mainly due to a structural oversupply. Instead of introducing price measures, measures aimed at reducing this excess supply would be a more efficient method of increasing coffee producers'incomes.

The World Trade Organization, which came into existence at the conclusion of the Uruguay Round, is in charge of administering a plethora of new trade rules. The main thrust of the new rules is to reduce or abolish tariffs and quotas on a wide range of products. Some tariffs and quotas were...

This paper provides evidence on an amended Mayer-Heckscher-Ohlin model with parties by studying the effects of U.S. tariffs on the Democratic vote share. The effects are estimated with fixed effects and Two-Stage Least Squares based on data from the House of Representatives from the years 1982...

I show that the unique Nash equilibrium of a model of political competition between two parties in a Heckscher-Ohlin setting entails differentiated trade policies, with a party proposing a high tariff, and the other one a low one. The basic departure from a median voter model is the introduction...

This paper is an empirical investigation on the relationship between trade globalization and political liberalization. The sample is based on 157 countries from years 1957-1998, taking into consideration many social, economic, environmental, geographical, and historical factors. From this, an...