This paper focuses on the decomposition of observed increases in UK wage inequality since 1979 into the component factors of competition from low-wage imports and technological change. Building on recent work by Abrego and Whalley, we argue that the length of production run and degree of fixity...

To explore the mixed economic results and huge distributional changes experienced by post-Soviet economies, I set up a series of theoretical and numerical simulation models using an approach based upon heterogeneous firms, where 'reform' means closure of inefficient capacity. In the presence of...

I examine the implications of increasing stock market globalisation for the economics of protection. European, Japanese and Australian data mostly indicate that over 30 per cent of the stock market is now foreign-owned, a large increase on the 1980s. Foreign share ownership in the USA is lower,...

This paper focuses on the causes of increased wage inequality in OECD countries in recent years and its decomposition into the component factors of trade surges in low wage products and technological change that has preoccupied the trade and wages literature. It argues that the length of...

We investigate the merger decision between two firms in an outsourcing relationship, one upstream and the other downstream. The inter-firm relationship is subject both to ex ante matching uncertainty and to contractual efficiency issues. Cross-border merger is assumed to solve the latter...

I investigate the imposition of a horizontal technical barrier to trade (HTBT) in a symmetric, cross-hauling duopoly. Tariffs and subsidies are ruled out, but, in the absence of a mutual recognition agreement, it is possible for governments to impose HTBTs, so long as firms apply different...

Globalisation is associated with long periods of sustained economic growth and credit expansion, whereas major recessions tend to lead to falling trade and protectionism. The sensitivity of trade to global economic conditions is not simply driven by policy: rather, in a model of costly search,...

Abstract Using a new set of measures of concentration of trade, I suggest that the opening up of trade to date has been greatly exaggerated. At least judging on the basis of trade concentration, agriculture and service sectors should barely be seen as globalized at all. Contrary to other, recent...

This paper investigates the deeper integration of the new EU accession states into the Single Market. Building on the assumption that observed trade patterns can be taken to reveal trading costs between members and non-members of a bloc, I develop a model-consistent Dixit-Stiglitz general...

This paper investigates the implications of imperfect information and matching/searching for international trade theory. I develop an illustrative model where firms find such partners by a search through successive matches. The consequences include linking today's import demand patterns to past...