500 research outputs found
The Impact of Trade on Intraindustry Reallocation and Aggregate Industry Productivity: A Comment
No full textMelitz (2003) demonstrates that greater trade openness raises industry productivity via a selection effect and via a production re-allocation effect. Our comment points out that the set-up assumed in the Melitz model displays a trade off between static and dynamic efficiency gains. That is, although freer trade improves industry productivity in a level sense, it harms it in a growth sense. To make this point as simply as possible, we introduce a slight modification to the model that endogenises the growth rate of industry productivity and we show that liberalisation slows growth.
Heterogeneous Firms and Trade: Testable and Untestable Properties of the Melitz Model
No full textThis paper sets out a basic heterogeneous-firms trade model that is closely akin to Melitz (2003). The positive and normative properties of the model are studied in a manner intended to highlight the core economic logic of the model. The paper also studies the impact of greater openness at the firm-level and aggregate level, focusing on changes in the number and type of firms, trade volumes and prices, and productivity effects. The normative effects of liberalisation are also studied and here the paper focuses on aggregate gains from trade, and income redistribution effects, showing inter alia that the model is marked by a Stolper-Samuelson like effect. A number of empirically testable hypotheses are also developed. These concern the impact of greater openness on the firm-level trade pattern, the variance of unit-prices, the stock market valuation of firms according to size, and the lobbying behaviour by size.
Where do Firms Export, How Much and Why?
No full textThe empirical finding that exporting firms are more productive on average than non-exporters has provoked a large theoretical literature based on models such as Melitz (2003), where more productive firms are more likely to overcome costs associated with trade. This paper provides a systematic empirical assessment of the Melitz framework using a unique Irish dataset that includes information on destinations and firm characteristics such as productivity. We find a number of interesting deviations from the model's predictions including a high degree of unpredictable idiosyncratic participation in export markets by firms, a relatively weak positive correlation between the extent of export participation and export sales, and a limited role for productivity in explaining firm exporting behavior. We illustrate the effect of firm heterogeneity on gravity regressions of aggregate trade flows and show how past exporting to a particular market has a strong impact on the current probability of exporting there.
Where Do Firms Export, How Much, and Why?
No full textThe empirical finding that exporting firms are more productive on average than non-exporters has provoked a large theoretical literature based on models such as Melitz (2003), where more productive firms are more likely to overcome costs associated with trade. This paper provides a systematic empirical assessment of the Melitz framework using a unique Irish dataset that includes information on destinations and firm characteristics such as productivity. We find a number of interesting deviations from the model’s predictions including a high degree of unpredictable idiosyncratic participation in export markets by firms, a relatively weak positive correlation between the extent of export participation and export sales, and a limited role for productivity in explaining firm exporting behavior. We illustrate the effect of firm heterogeneity on gravity regressions of aggregate trade flows and show how past exporting to a particular market has a strong impact on the current probability of exporting there.
Trade Liberalization with Heterogenous Firms
No full textThis paper examines the impact of trade liberalization with heterogeneous firms using the Melitz (2003) model. We find a number of novel results and effects including a Stolper-Samuelson like result and several results related to the volume of trade, which are empirically testable. We also find what might be called an anti-variety effect as the result of trade liberalization. This resonates with the often voiced criticism from antiglobalists that globalization leads the world to become more homogenous by eliminating local specialities. Nevertheless, we find that trade liberalization always leads to welfare gains in the model.
International economics : theory and policy / Paul R. Krugman, Princeton University, Maurice Obstfeld, University of California, Berkeley, Marc J. Melitz, Harvard University.
No full texteconomic&political bookfair2016Includes bibliographical references and index.785 pages :"For courses in International Economics, International Finance, and International Trade" "A balanced approach to theory and policy applications"...
"International Economics: Theory and Policy" provides engaging, balanced coverage of the key concepts and practical applications of the two main topic areas of the discipline. For both international trade and international finance, an intuitive introduction to theory is followed by detailed coverage of policy applications. With this new tenth edition, the author team of Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, renowned researcher Maurice Obstfeld, and Marc Melitz of Harvard University continues to set the standard for International Economics courses. This program provides a better teaching and learning experience--for you and your students. It will help you to: - Personalize learning with MyEconLab This online homework, tutorial, and assessment program fosters learning and provides tools that help instructors to keep students on track.- Reveal theory and applications of trade and finance via a unified structure Balanced coverage of theory and applications aids student retention and highlights the relevance of course material.- Give students learning tools to master course material Numerous in-text learning resources engage students and encourage further exploration of course topics. Note: If you are purchasing the standalone text or electronic version, MyEconLab does not come automatically packaged with the text. To purchase MyEconLab please visit www.myeconlab.com or you can purchase a package of the physical text + MyEconLab by searching for 0133826945 / 9780133826944. MyEconLab is not a self-paced technology and should only be purchased when required by an instructor
Replication data for: Product Mix and Firm Productivity Responses to Trade Competition
No full textMayer, Thierry, Melitz, Marc J., and Ottaviano, Gianmarco I. P., (2021) “Product Mix and Firm Productivity Responses to Trade Competition.” Review of Economics and Statistics 103:5, 874–891
Trade Costs, Trade Balances and Current Accounts: An Application of Gravity to Multilateral Trade
No full textIn this paper we test the well-known hypothesis of Obstfeld and Rogoff (2000) that trade costs are the key to explaining the so-called Feldstein-Horioka puzzle. Using a gravity framework in an intertemporal context, we provide strong support for the hypothesis and we reconcile our results with the so-called home bias puzzle. Interestingly, this requires a fundamental revision of Obstfeld and Rogoff’s argument. A further novelty of our work is in tying bilateral trade behavior to desired aggregate trade balances and desired intertemporal trade.Feldstein-Horioka puzzle, trade costs, gravity model, home bias puzzle, current account, trade balance
Zeros, Quality and Space: Trade Theory and Trade Evidence
No full textBilateral, product-level data exhibit a number of strong patterns that can be used to evaluate international trade theories, notably the spatial incidence of “export zeros” (correlated with distance and importer size), and of export unit values (positively related to distance). We show that leading theoretical trade models fail to explain at least some of these facts, and propose a variant of the Melitz model that can account for all the facts. In our model, high quality firms are the most competitive, with heterogeneous quality increasing with firms’ heterogeneous cost.
Market Size, Trade, and Productivity
No full textWe develop a monopolistically competitive model of trade with firm heterogeneity-in terms of productivity differences-and endogenous differences in the "toughness" of competition across markets-in terms of the number and average productivity of competing firms. We analyse how these features vary across markets of different size that are not perfectly integrated through trade; we then study the effects of different trade liberalization policies. In our model, market size and trade affect the toughness of competition, which then feeds back into the selection of heterogeneous producers and exporters in that market. Aggregate productivity and average mark-ups thus respond to both the size of a market and the extent of its integration through trade (larger, more integrated markets exhibit higher productivity and lower mark-ups). Our model remains highly tractable, even when extended to a general framework with multiple asymmetric countries integrated to different extents through asymmetric trade costs. We believe this provides a useful modelling framework that is particularly well suited to the analysis of trade and regional integration policy scenarios in an environment with heterogeneous firms and endogenous mark-ups. Copyright 2008 The Review of Economic Studies Limited.
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