Productivity agendas often struggle because they target something that is not explicitly measured – a residual in a growth accounting framework that cannot be directly addressed by policy -- an elusive unknown with an attractive name: multifactor productivity (MFP) There is no mystery about...

In this paper I sketch out the rough contours of the challenge faced by the WTO in dealing with non-tariff measures (NTMs) as seen from the economic theories of trade agreements. The key questions for the WTO - the answers to which largely dictate the choice between shallow and deep approaches...

We develop a general equilibrium model of trade between identical countries. The model is similar to a 2x2x2 Heckser-Ohlin model, but the factors of production, skilled and unskilled labor, are endogenously determined from human capital investments by the workers. Firms are only able to observe...

In January 2015, The Swiss Franc (CHF) appreciated unexpectedly against the Euro by approximately 15%. We document a new fact: French firms that exported to both the Swiss market and the Eurozone also exhibited a sudden change in their export prices to the Eurozone. We coin this the “exchange...

In general equilibrium theory for private good economies, possible discontinuities in budget correspondences create obstacles to decentralizing Pareto efficient allocations, as well as to existence of Walrasian equilibrium with gains from trade. Then McKenzie's (1957) notion of compensated...