Globalisation is associated with long periods of sustained economic growth and credit expansion, whereas major recessions tend to lead to falling trade and protectionism. I investigate this, using a model where an important component of trade is search by rms trying out new trade part- ners. To...

We investigate the theoretical relationship between wage concentration and international market integration. Access to imported varieties lowers the cost of intermediate inputs (“machines”) used to carry out production tasks, causing workers with different comparative abilities to be sorted...

Mankiw, Romer and Weil's (1992) finding of a cross-country relationship between savings rates, school enrolment and income levels is highly ambiguous. Their in- terpretation that it is consistent with an augmented Solow model depends on the implausible assumption that educational productivity is...

We examine the geo-political and international spatial aspects of human rights (HR), using a purpose designed data-set. Applying tools from the spatial economics literature, we analyse the impact on a country’s HR performance of geographical proximity to its neighbours. Unlike previous...

By looking at post colonial trade relationships of the world countries for period of 1948-2006, Head and Mayer (HM [Head et al. (2010)]) conclude that a country's trade with the colonizer, typically, erodes by 60% after 30 years of independence. However, the CAR (Central Asian Republics(CAR)...

This note explores the value of search capital in interfirm matches in the outsourcing trade, by extending Rauch and Casella's (2003) framework to a dynamic model of matching and searching. On provisional calculations, the sunken cost of this search imposes a similar order of magnitude trade...

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...

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...

I set up a linear model of a cross-hauling, Cournot duopoly. Even where countries are small, there exists a motive for protection to achieve a profit-shift and to raise revenue. Where the protection is of tariff form, then the protection will only totally exclude the foreign firm for a limited...