This paper studies how a country's labor market institutions, by affecting workers' skill acquisition, can shape its export patterns. I develop an open-economy model in which workers undertake non-contractible activities to acquire firm-specific skills on the job. In the model, labor market...

This paper analyzes the interaction between credit constraints and trading behavior, decomposing trade in extensive and intensive margins. I construct a unique dataset containing firm-level trade transaction data, balance sheets and credit scores from an independent credit insurance company for...

Exports, in this study, are more productive than non-exports, but why? Using a micro-panel dataset from five African countries we show that more productive small and medium enterprises (SMEs) self-select into exporting. Ultimately we are interested in impact of exporting on productivity. Results...

Despite the major advances in information technology that have shaped the recent wave of globalization, openness to trade is still a political choice, and trade policy can change with shifts in domestic political equilibria. This paper suggests that a particular threat and a limiting factor to...

World trade growth was rapid in the two decades prior to the global financial crisis but has halved subsequently. There are both structural and cyclical reasons for the slowdown. A deceleration in the rate of trade liberalisation post 2000 was initially obscured by the ongoing expansion of...

The effect of economic integration and other factors on interstate conflict has been examined with a delimited geographical scope. A logistic regression analysis is adopted with one-year lagged independent variables regressed on dependent variable of interstate conflict. It is revealed that the...

Innovation depends on exporting and, in particular, on scale and competition in export markets. We develop a theory featuring (1) quality-segmented markets, (2) step-by-step innovation that moves firms forward along the quality ladder, and (3) escape-the-competition motives for innovation. We...

The performance of seven conventional Indian special economic zones (SEZs) at the disaggregate level is analysed within the framework of the zone-trade performance index, for the period between 1986–87 and 2007–08. The analysis reveals variations in performance across zones as well...