Recent empirical work identi.es two main channels through which consumers benefit from trade. Trade liberalization lowers prices, while it raises product variety. This paper develops the first model that connects both channels and interprets their interaction. It shows that heterogeneity in firm...

The reallocation of output across plants and the productivity growth at individual plants are both important sources of productivity growth at the industry level. Recent evidence has shown that trade liberalization is related to both e..ects. While a trade model with firm heterogeneity can...

This paper analyses the impact of trade liberalization in a model where heterogeneous firms can freely offshore their production. Firms choose whether to produce, and if so whether to sell on the domestic market only or on the export market as well. Simultaneously, they also choose where to...

Standard theoretical models would predict that a currency depreciation generates an increase in net exports. However, recent emerging market crises, accompanied by sharp exchange rate devaluations, have often been followed by a fall in or a stagnation of exports. This paper provides a simple...

The empirical trade literature examining the effect of tariff reductions on productivity commonly proxies the former with Nominal Tariff Rates(NTR) and estimates the latter as the production function residual. In the context of the South African trade reform experience we examine the different...

Distance effects in empirical gravity equations appear to be too high to be explained by transport costs alone. Moreover, despite the strong and ongoing reduction of transport costs, the estimated coefficients are rather increasing than decreasing over the last six decades. To address the two...

Wholesale trade affiliates account for a considerable fraction of the sales of Multinational Companies (MNCs). However, this and similar types of FDI, aiming at facilitating export activities, have received little attention in the literature. In this paper export-supporting FDI (ESFDI) which is...

The geographical distribution of R&D investment changes dramatically in the 1970s and 1980s. In the early 1970s U.S. firms are the uncontested world leaders in R&D investment in most manufacturing sectors. Later, led by Japan and Europe, foreign firms start challenging American R&D leadership in...

This paper studies the welfare effects of international competition in the market for innovations, and analyzes how competition affects the costs and the benefits of cooperative and non-cooperative R&D subsidies. I set up a two-country quality-ladder growth model where the leader, the home...

Cross border transactions are conducted using diffierent payment contracts, the usage of which varies across countries and over time. In this paper I build a model that can explain this observation and study implications from this for international trade. In the model exporters optimally choose...