We propose a multi-country model with occupational choice, heterogeneous firms, unemployment, and revenue-generating tariffs to study the aggregate and distributional consequences of tariff wars in a unified framework. Motivated by the 2018 global tariff war, we calibrate the model to fit a...

Exploiting variation in exposure to Chinese import growth across U.S. local markets, I investigate the effects of import competition on self-employment between 1990 and 2014. I find Chinese import competition had negative effects on self-employment during the 1990s. However, the negative effects...

The Great Recession, which was preceded by the financial crisis, resulted in higher unemployment and inequality. We propose a simple model where firms producing varieties face labor-market frictions and credit constraints. In the model, tighter credit leads to lower output, lower number of...

We investigate effects of plausibly exogenous variation in the value of oil and natural gas production in local economies on self-employment in the United States. We find that self-employment is procyclical, i.e. self-employment increases during a business cycle expansion and is reduced during a...

The empirical relationship between trade protection and economic growth is surprisingly fragile, as shown in a number of other papers. After demonstrating this empirical sensitivity, we address one possible explanation for these findings: that the relationship is nonlinear. Following the...

This paper develops a trade model with firm-specific quality heterogeneity in markets where firms face the threat of imitation and engage in limit-pricing strategies. The model generates an endogenous distribution of prices and markups. Firms producing high-quality (high-price) products export,...

In this paper, I analyze the time paths of the efficiencies of skilled and unskilled labor in aproduction framework where skilled and unskilled labor are imperfect substitutes. Theirimplications for economic growth and wage inequality in the US between 1950 and 2005present two main findings....

I investigate the long-run implications of trade and technology diffusion through trade, when firms are heterogeneous and trade is costly. The paper integrates firm heterogeneity and trade into product innovation growth models from endogenous growth theory. Two specifications of the R&D process...