We propose a method to decompose the logarithmic change of the Divisia price index into the pure price effect, the prefernce effect and the substitution effect. Our empirical results in the Philippines shows the effects of preference change on the Divisia price index are heterogeneous but...

This paper incorporates risk into the FDI decisions of rms. The risk of FDI failure increases with the gap between the South's technology frontier and the technology complexity of a firm's product. This leads to a double-crossing sorting pattern of FDI firms of intermediate technology levels are...

We consider a simple two-period model with irreversible investment with strategic interactions. In this setup, we try to extend the concept of the quasi-option value (QOV) by Arrow and Fisher (1974), Henry (1974), Fisher and Hanemann (1987) and Hanemann (1989) to a game-theoretic situation. In...

This paper reexamines the GATT/WTO membership effect on bilateral trade flows, using nonparametric methods including pair-matching, permutation tests, and a Rosenbaum (2002) sensitivity analysis. Together, these methods provide an estimation framework that is robust to misspecification biases,...

TWe investigate how a domestic subsidy is treated in an international agreement, when a government, having incentive to use its subsidy as a means of import protection, can disguise its protective use of subsidy as a legitimate intervention with which to address a market imperfection in the...

This paper builds a dynamic model to examine the two-way interaction between FDI and the South's technology frontier. Inferior technology capacity in the South generates risk of production failure, which discourages inward FDI with high technology content. Only if the risk is not prohibitive...

This paper uses a DSGE-VAR model to examine the managed exchange-rate system at work in Singapore and asks if the country has any reason to fear floating the exchange rate with a Taylor rule inflation-targeting mechanism that uses the short term interest rate instead of the exchange rate as the...

This article clari…es the roles played by trade policy, in contrast with iceberg transport cost, in the popular setting of Melitz (2003), and characterizes the optimal reciprocal trade policy in such a setting. I show that import tariffs and iceberg transport cost are not equivalent in the...

This paper presents a theory on the endogenous choice of a country's education policy and the two-way causal relationship between trade and education systems. The setting of a country's education system determines its talent distribution and comparative advantage in trade; the possibility of trade...

We examine several hypotheses regarding the determinants and implications of political protest, motivated by the wave of popular uprisings in Arab countries starting in late 2010. While the popular narrative has emphasized the role of a youthful demography and political repression, we draw...