We study the volatility of growth rates and find that it differs systematically across countries. Our empirical investigation reveals that there is a high correlation between disparity in political regimes across countries and differences in volatility. This is not the case for some of the...

This paper puts forth a theory to explainwhy special interest groups are more prevelant in some countries. Its thesis is that uneven industrialization facilitates the formation of special interest groups with monopoly control over factor supplies. An uneven industrial structure is both an...

Open economy macroeconomics typically takes as exogenously given important aspects of the pattern of international trade. This paper shows how heterogeneity in trade costs and heterogeneity in productivities work together to jointly determine features of the pattern of international trade and...

This paper finds a solution to some of the discrepancies between the data and what standard complete markets models predict. Specifically, those related to the cross-country correlations of consumption, output and factors of production. I match the data and get positive cross country comovements...

Three of the most important recent facts in global macroeconomics — the sustained rise in the US current account deficit, the stubborn decline in long run real rates, and the rise in the share of US assets in global portfolio — appear as anomalies from the perspective of...

It is well known that prices respond only partially, if at all, to changes in the nominal exchange rate. Exchange-rate pass-through, quite low for consumer prices, is far for complete for international prices as well (see the survey in Goldberg and Knetter [1997]). To the extent that incomplete...