In this paper we investigate a particular mechanism through which differences in demographic composition across countries affect international trade flows. Some cognitive functions are known to vary across the adult life span, and in particular the ability to update skills and adapt to changes...

We argue that the narrative of variety-induced gains from trade in differentiated goods needs revision. If producing differentiated varieties of a good requires differentiated skills and if the work force is heterogeneous in these skills, then firms are likely to have monopsony power. We show...

We develop a model that combines monopolistic competition on goods markets with skill-type heterogeneity on the labor market to analyze the effects of trade and migration on welfare and inequality. Skill-type heterogeneity and partial specificity to firms' endogenously chosen skill requirements...

In a heterogeneous-firm model with oligopsonistic local labor markets, this paper shows that opening up to trade can affect distortion in such markets. The distortion arises because firms are large and able to exercise market power over their local workers. Using a panel dataset of Chinese...

Immigrants can foster host-country trade flows by using their information network. However, the heterogeneity in skill level and increasing diversification in terms of both origin and destination of the immigrants have added complexity to this issue. This paper examines the causal linkage...

We study the relationship between age and literacy skills using data from the IALS, ALL and PIAAC surveys. In cross-sectional data there is a negative partial relationship between literacy skills and age that is statistically significant indicating that literacy declines with age, especially...

Using Vietnamese firm-level data from 2000 to 2010, this paper measures firm-level labor market distortion with a nonparametric production function approach and examines the impacts of an export shock on such measured distortion. Our measurement indicates substantial wedges between equilibrium...