The half century leading up to the crisis of 2008-2009 was the best such period in world economic history, especially in the Asia Pacific. Peace and relative economic stability permitted unprecedented liberalization, economic integration, and advances in productivity and growth. But the...

Empirical evidence suggests that sectoral export growth decreases exporters' survival probability, whereas non-exporters are unaffected. Models with firm heterogeneity in total factor productivity predict the opposite. To solve this puzzle, we develop a two-factor framework where firms differ in...