This paper uses a general equilibrium trade framework to estimate the contribution of transport infrastructure to regional development. I apply the analysis to India, a country with a notoriously weak and congested transportation infrastructure. I first analyze the development effects of a...

Worldwide, free trade agreements (FTAs) have remained a debatable issue. This paper tries to demystify the recent myths that have surrounded the FTA strategy of India, especially as part of the Look East Policy. The paper does this by analysing the determinants of Intra-Industry Trade (IIT),...

Lucas (1990) argues that the neoclassical adjustment process fails to explain the relative paucity of FDI inflows from rich to poor countries. In this paper we consider a natural experiment: using China as the treated country and India as the control, we show that the dynamics of the relative...

This paper examines the response of firms to capital destruction, using a new measure of firmexposure to tropical storms as a negative exogenous shock on firms' capital stock. Drawing on apanel of Indian manufacturing firms between 1995 and 2006, we establish that, depending on theirstrength,...

This paper examines the trade policy response of Latin American governments to the rapid growth of China and India in world markets. To explain higher protection in sectors where a large share is imported from these countries, we extend the 'protection for sale' model to allow for different...

Following the introduction of the one-child policy in China, the capital-labor (K/L) ratio of China increased relative to that of India, and, simultaneously, FDI inflows relative to GDP for China versus India declined. These observations are explained in the context of a simple neoclassical OLG...

In his Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations Adam Smith (1776) considered the phenomenon of division of labor so enormously significant for the creation of a nation’s wealth that he devoted the first three chapters of his book to an investigation of this process. This is...

The paper first analyzes the pattern of trade for China and India in the new century. We find that: (1) Both countries have high openness ratios that positively associated with their growing labor productivity over years. (2) China’s world export share keeps increasing whereas India maintains...

Whether it is the Heckscher-Ohlin trade model built on David Ricardo’s theory of comparative advantage or the application of the Kuznet’s curve linking inequality with trade liberalization; a ‘one size fits all’ model justifying the implementation of neo-liberal reforms in securing high...

The structure of production and trade that exists in an economy can be taken to 'reveal' the current or recent past in terms of trends in comparative advantage. Traditionally the HO model characterizes the US as being rich in human capital which gives it a comparative advantage in services....