In this study, we argue that the conventional intra-industry trade (IIT) index does not address the quality issue directly and propose a methodology to make full use of unit-price gap information to deduce quality differences between simultaneously exported and imported products. By applying...

Forthcoming in the <I>International Economic Review</I>.<P> We examine an export game where two firms (home and foreign), located in two differentcountries, produce vertically differentiated products. The foreign firm is the most efficientin terms of R&D costs of quality development and the foreign...</p></i>

This paper aims to contribute empirically to the knowledge concerning the nature and causes of Italian vertical intra-industry trade (VIIT), distinguishing between high- and low-quality VIIT. The value-added of this study arises from the fact that it utilises a new approach to measure...

In recent years empirical studies offer clear evidence on the increasing importance of intra-industry trade in presence of vertically differentiated products. These are goods that, within the same industry, are distinguished by different quality levels. In the new trade theory and in the...

We examine an export game where two firms (home and foreign), located in two different countries, produce vertically differentiated products. The foreign firm is the most efficient in terms of R&D costs of quality development and the foreign country is relatively larger and endowed with a...