We analyze how globalization has affected the sectoral anatomy of regional growth in Germany over the period 1978-2008. The aggregate German economy is characterized by a secular decline of manufacturing and a rise of modern service industries. This trend - also known as Petty's law - is not...

We characterize the equilibrium and optimal resource allocations in a general equilibrium model of monopolistic competition with multiple asymmetric sectors and heterogeneous firms. We first derive general results for additively separable preferences and general productivity distributions, and...

This paper offers a new mechanism to explain de-industrialisation in response to a price increase of the manufactured good. In our trade model, one sector (agriculture) is perfectly competitive while the other (manufacturing) is monopolistically competitive. Both industries use skilled and...

In this paper we analyze the political economics of different strategies to implement revenue neutral reforms of a complicated income tax system ('tax-cut-cum-base-broadening'). We set up a straightforward social choice model where individuals initially have two deduction possibilities from the...

An increase in legally binding severance payments creates both an incentive and a disincentive for workers to invest in firmspecific human capital. Which effect prevails on balance depends on the productivity of the worker s human capital investment. For strong positive reactions, increases in...

In standard models of New Economic Geography the overall regional price index in the centre is lower than in the periphery, because trade in manufacturing imposes transportation costs whereas trade in agriculture is assumed to be costless. Since real world observations suggest higher overall...