We estimate productivities at the sector level for 72 countries and 5 decades, and examine how they evolve over time in both developed and developing countries. In both country groups, comparative advantage has become weaker: productivity grew systematically faster in sectors that were initially...

This paper develops a model to study the impact of trade costs on developing countries' industrialization when sequential production is networked in global value chains (GVCs). In a two-country setting, a decrease in trade costs of intermediate goods is associated with South joining and moving...

With reference to the size of the informal sector, Stiglitz (2003) argues that border taxes are superior to VAT in certain developing countries. By way of a quantitative example this paper shows that, while Stiglitz' claim is probably will turn out to be correct, a large informal sector is not a...

This paper addresses the lack of connection between theory and empirics in most export diversification - economic development studies. We provide a Ricardian-based theoretical explanation of countries' relative export variety as a function of the level of technology and country size assessed...

Conventional trade theory, which combines the Heckscher-Ohlin theory and the Stolper-Samuelson theorem, implies that expanded trade between developed and developing countries will increase wage equality in the former. This theory is widely applied. It serves as the basis for estimating the...

This paper builds a general equilibrium trade model where a country produces two traded goods and one non-traded public consumption good. The government finances the provision of the public good by taxing the incomes of factors of production, and or by imposing tariffs. Within this framework,...

We modify the standard trade model introducing the possibility of biased technological changes. This model help to explain the falling labor shares as well as the mixed changes in skill premium in developing countries after trade liberalization takes place