Does trade improve institutions and contribute to long run growth? I develop a theory of trade, in which trade …

-degenerate world income distribution. In accordance with the empirical literature, I find that country characteristics such as the … policies such as subsidies to innovation investments explain a country's position in the eventual world income distribution …

higher profits, but forcing less-productive firms to reduce prices and earn lower profits. As a result, low-productivity …

We use firm-level data for 15 countries and 13 manufacturing sectors to estimate firm-level productivity parameters and … to establish representative country-sector-specific empirical productivity distributions. We use these distributions … of technology in shaping international trade flows. We find that, on average, absolute advantage measured as productivity …

determinant of the distribution of world population and a prime cause of the Great Divergence in income per capita across … countries in the last two centuries. The theory suggests that international trade affected the evolution of economies … comparative advantage generates an important new insight regarding the distribution of the gains from trade. The theory suggests …

, it is possible to identify a variety of channels through which trade affects the evolution of world income and its …