What are the barriers that separate nations? While recent work provides intriguing clues, we have remarkably little concrete evidence as to the nature, size, and shape of barriers. This paper offers direct and indirect evidence on trade barriers, moving us toward a comprehensive geography of...

International trade occurs in physical space and moving goods requires time. This paper examines the importance of time as a trade barrier, estimates the magnitude of time costs, and relates these to patterns of trade and the international organization of production. Estimates indicate that each...

Bucket pricing entails a prepaid price and a maximum consumption limit, which requires consumers to make advance purchase decisions before their consumption needs are fully revealed. We propose a dynamic model that involves how consumers form expectations of future consumption needs, learn to...

The body of literature surrounding emotional labor, defined as service employees’ effort to manage their emotions to meet organizational goals (Hochschild, 1983; Morris & Feldman, 1996), exhibits a severe lack of studies examining intercultural service encounters (i.e., service episodes in which a...

This paper asks how NAFTA affected income distribution within Mexico considering changes in internalmigration. Trade liberalization should theoretically increase the income of low-skilled workers in low-skilled labor-abundantdeveloping countries. Thus, by increasing the wages of poorer workers,...

The U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard program (RFS), which involves mandates for variousbiofuels, is complex and has been often misinterpreted or oversimplified in previous studies.In this paper we analyze the implications of the RFS for the U.S. domestic and international ethanol markets. We...

This dissertation studies the impact of trade liberalization, at the firm level and at the industry level, on the economy of the liberalizing country.The first chapter demonstrates that in a two-tier production model the liberalization of imports of input varieties weakens local input linkages....

This paper exploits the panel dimension of the Vietnam Living Standards Survey (VLSS) in order to analyze the main changes occurring in agriculture in Vietnam over the period 1993- 1998. This period was marked by a continuation of the reforms that began in 1988 with the implementation of...

We use a large dataset covering all registered plants in the manufacturing sector in India over the period 1986 to 1995 to examine the effects of a 1992 income tax law change that eliminated the double taxation of wages paid to partners in partnership firms. This tax law change provides a unique...