What are the barriers that separate nations? While recent work provides intriguing clues, we have remarkably little concrete evidence as to the nature, size, and shape of barriers. This paper offers direct and indirect evidence on trade barriers, moving us toward a comprehensive geography of...

International trade occurs in physical space and moving goods requires time. This paper examines the importance of time as a trade barrier, estimates the magnitude of time costs, and relates these to patterns of trade and the international organization of production. Estimates indicate that each...

This thesis is comprised of three chapters. The first chapter develops a statistical model that enriches the role that firms playin wage determination, allowing firms to influence both average wages as well as the returns to observable worker characteristics. I exploit the hierarchical nature of...

This paper examines the changes in relative earnings of workers with different education levels during Vietnam’s transition. It is found that females enjoy a higher return to education than males do in 1998, reversing the situation observed five years ago. A large fall in the returns to...

We study changes in the wage structures in nine EU countries over 1995-2002 and the role of demand, supply and institutional developments in shaping these changes. Using comparable cross-country microeconomic data, we compute for each country and at each decile of the wage distribution, the part...

A pesar de una rápida disminución del desempleo, los salarios reales en España apenas aumentaron durante el periodo 1995-2006. Una posible explicación de este comportamiento se refiere a la importancia de los efectos composición derivados de algunos cambios estructurales, tales como el...

Economics

The dissertation consists of two main parts. The first part presents a search model with non-stationary reservation wages. In the model the reservation wage declines over time and at a certain point is equal to utility of non-participation, after which it is not optimal to search and workers...

BIMSTEC, a regional grouping of South and Southeast Asian countries, is heading towards an FTA for greater economic integration. The present paper examines the ex ante effects of the iniative by adopting SMART and GTAP models. Based on estimated export supply elasticity, the results of SMART...