How do the number of trade partners and the concentration of trade among partners affect the economic growth of a country? We refer to these characteristics as the structure of trade, and explore this question empirically in this study. We find that the structure of trade, independently of the...

We combine data on international trade linkages with network methods to examine the global trading system as an interdependent complex network. We map the topology of the international trade network, and suggest new network-based measures of international economic integration, at both a global...

"We combine data on international trade linkages with a network approach to map the global trading system as an interdependent complex network. This enables us to obtain indicators of how well connected a country is into the global trading system. We use these network-based measures of...

We map the relationship between products in global trade and the products a country exports as a network to devise a measure of the density of links between the products in a country's export basket and a measure of network proximity from a country's export basket to products that a country does...

This paper presents new empirical evidence regarding the cyclicality of skill acquisition activities. The paper studies both training and schooling episodes at the individual level using quarterly data from the NLSY79 for a period of 19 years. We find that aggregate schooling is strongly...

We embed an N-level human-capital hierarchy in a growth model and demonstrate that the hierarchical structure generates an optimal investment program with phases of stock depletion and expansion in the stocks of the various levels of humancapital. We then take the implications of the model to...

This paper presents a theoretical model in which governments regulate economic activity and individuals bypass the regulations by paying bribes to the public officials who monitor their businesses; the amount of the bribe is the subject of bargaining. The paper then introduces a policy that...