North-South competition in quality: Analyzing a new database that makes it possible to disaggregate trade flows across many countries according to unit values, we show that international specialization in terms of quality within industries and product categories plays an important role in the...

Recent trade negotiations, both at the regional and multilateral level, have seen a resurgence of the issue of trade and labour standards. As the world economy becomes increasingly globalised and the volume of world trade flows keeps increasing between the North and the South, it is very likely...