This paper explores the interactions between external trade and regional disparities in the Italian economy since unification. It argues that the advantage of the North was initially based on natural advantage (in particular the endowment of water, intensive in silk production). From 1880...

In 150 years, the trends in regional disparities in economic development within Italy have differed depending on whether they are gauged by longitude or by latitude. The disparities between western and eastern regions first widened and then closed; the North-South gap, by contrast, remains the...

The present paper studies the variety gains of regional integration in Asia. Applying a heterogenous firm model we are able to assess the gains arising from the increased product and consumer choice, which is not possible in trade models with representative firms. We analyse the impacts of the...

This paper explores whether there is sufficient lumpiness or heterogeneity in the relative endowments (capital, labour and skills) of the regions of China to affect China's specialization and trade patterns. It does so using both the lens condition to identify the violation of factor price...

This study tries to look at how 'open' Indian states are with respect to international trade and then try to characterise the relationship between regional disparity and 'openness'. The major purpose of this work is to develop an openness index at the regional or state level. It is well...

For the last decades, regions in the United States have been diverging. More skill-intensive regions have experienced a higher wage and skill premium growth and had become even more skill-intensive. In this paper, I show that this may be driven in part by trade with China. One of the main...

We test the hypothesis that higher economic development is associated with lower trade costs. Using different methods to control for multilateral resistance, we apply two alternative gravity equations (GE). In the first, we estimate total exports from 103 Italian provinces to 188 countries over...

We measure the importance of increasing returns to scale and trade in medical services. Using Medicare claims data, we document that "imported" medical care -- services produced by a medical provider in a different region -- constitute about one-fifth of US healthcare consumption. Larger regions...

This paper analyzes the contribution of import competition to the regional divergence among US metropolitan areas over recent decades. I document that the sharp rise in imports of Chinese manufacturing goods had a significant effect on the spatial skill polarization and the divergence of college...

We measure the importance of increasing returns to scale and trade in medical services. Using Medicare claims data, we document that “imported” medical care—services produced by a medical provider in a different region—constitute about one-fifth of US healthcare consumption. Larger...