Do better trade logistics reduce trade costs, raising a country's exports?  Yes, but the magnitude of the effect depends on country size.  Applying a new gravity model to a comprehensive logistics index, we find that an average-sized country would raise exports by about 46% after a...

We present a gravity model that accounts for multilateral resistance, firm heterogeneity and country-selection into trade, while accommodating asymmetries in trade flows.  A new equation for the proportion of exporting firms takes a gravity form: the extensive margin is also affected by...

This paper studies the distributional impact of commodity price shocks over both the short and very long run.  Using a GARCH model, we find that Australia experienced more volatility than many commodity exporting developing countries over the periods 1865-1940 and 1960-2007.  A single equation...

We develop a model of endogenous skill-biased technical change in developing countries.  The model reconciles wildly dispersed existing estimates of the elasticity of substitution between more and less educated workers.  It also produces an estimating equation for the elasticity, which allow...

Commentators claim that a shortage of skills in South Africa is constraining output and that a rise in skill supply would benefit less skilled occupations. This assumes or implies skilled and unskilled labour are complements. Hicks Elasticities of Complementarity and elasticities of factor price...

Immigrants during two global centuries : rising quantity and falling quality -- A framework -- Looking at local labor markets -- Immigration shocks and labor market absorption : two modern examples -- Immigrants, wages, and inequality : the global centuries compared -- Policy and the demise of...