This paper reports the results of a major study of the impact of international agricultural research, covering eleven crops in all major regions of the developing world, over the period 1960-2000. Although much of the "common wisdom" concerning the Green Revolution suggests that gains from...

This paper examines the role of the market for high-skilled labor in explaining variation in the levels and dynamics of the service share, home production time, and market labor across countries. We establish and extend key facts for a cross-section of countries. First, growth in the total share...

We document that international transactions for narrowly defined goods occur infrequently. We study the implications of this lumpiness of international trade for the response of prices and quantities during large devaluations. Using a calibrated inventory management model of international trade...

The large, persistent fluctuations in international trade that cannot be explained in standard models by changes in expenditures and relative prices are often attributed to trade wedges. We show that these trade wedges can reflect the decisions of importers to change their inventory holdings. We...

Looking around the world, we observe substantial differences across countries in prices for most goods. These price differences also tend to be positively correlated with income differences, so that citizens of high-income countries tend to pay more for the same goods than citizens in low-income...

Fixed transaction costs and delivery lags are important costs of international trade. These costs lead firms to import infrequently and hold substantially larger inventories of imported goods than domestic goods. Using multiple sources of data, we document these facts. We then show that a...

Fixed transaction costs and delivery lags are important costs of international trade. These costs lead firms to import infrequently and hold substantially larger inventories of imported goods than domestic goods. Using multiple sources of data, we document these facts. We then show that a...