Using a model that admits variable returns and imperfect competition, we investigate the impact on total factor productivity of trade liberalization in six emerging economies. Regressions based on panel data for 28 three-digit manufacturing industries show that productivity growth is insensitive...

In various Asian countries, international trade has raised productivity, lowered markups through import competition (while increasing them through cheaper inputs that can be imported), raised wages, expanded employment, and, above all, reduced poverty. This is in sharp contrast to the impact of...