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We study a dynamic general equilibrium model where innovation takes the form of the introduction new goods, whose … production requires skilled workers. Innovation is followed by a costly process of standardization, whereby these new goods are … substitution between goods and other parameters. Third, we show that the interplay between innovation and standardization may lead …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012462712
innovation can be systematically distorted. This paper builds a simple model of endogenous technology, which generalizes existing … comparative static results and characterizes potential distortions in the direction of innovation. I show that empirical findings …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10014226119
In this essay I review the new book by Torsten Persson and Guido Tabellini, The Economic Effects of Constitutions, which investigates the policy and economic consequences of different forms of government and electoral rules. I also take advantage of this opportunity to discuss the advantages and...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012467450
We consider the design and implementation of international trade agreements when: (i) negotiations are undertaken and commitments made in the presence of uncertainty about future political pressures; (ii) governments possess private information about political pressures at the time that the...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012467700
Motivated by the structure of WTO negotiations, we analyze a bargaining environment in which negotiations proceed bilaterally and sequentially under the most-favored-nation (MFN) principle. We identify backward-stealing and forward-manipulation problems that arise when governments bargain under...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012468273
We show that even in the absence of diminishing returns in production and techno-logical spillovers, international trade leads to a stable world income distribution. This is because specialization and trade introduce de facto diminishing returns: countries that accumulate capital faster than...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012470646
We describe recent work on the theory of trade agreements that speaks to the purpose and design of GATT. Our discussion proceeds in three steps. First, we examine the purpose of a trade agreement. In both the traditional economic and the political-economy approaches to the study of trade...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012470726
Medical and public health innovations in the 1940s quickly resulted in significant health improvements around the world. Countries with initially higher mortality from infectious diseases experienced greater increases in life expectancy, population, and - over the following 40 years - social...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012455359