Trade, the Internet, and product innovation have greatly enlarged the number of goods (<italic>N</italic>) in the consumer's choice set. The welfare effect of the growth in <italic>N</italic> has been extensively discussed in the specialized literature, but very little has filtered down to our textbook models of a competitive...

Human capital models have mainly focused on the rate of return to investment in a homogeneous stock of capital. Yet, individuals have different initial attributes that determine comparative advantage in producing different types of human capital. The authors find that mathematical ability is an...

Trade, the Internet, and product innovation have greatly enlarged the number of goods ( N ) in the consumer's choice set. The welfare effect of the growth in N has been extensively discussed in the specialized literature, but very little has filtered down to our textbook models of a competitive...