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Explaining import quality: The role of the income distribution

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  • Choi, Yo Chul
  • Hummels, David
  • Xiang, Chong

Abstract

We examine a generalized version of Flam and Helpman [Flam, H., Helpman, E., 1987. Vertical Product Differentiation and North-South Trade. American Economic Review, 77, 810-822.] in which consumption prices for quality differentiated goods are rising in household income. We provide propositions for aggregating this relationship across heterogenous households to map cross-country differences in income distributions to cross-country differences in import price distributions. The theoretical predictions are examined and confirmed using disaggregated data on prices of traded goods and micro data on household income from the Luxemburg Income Study. Country pairs with more similar income distributions have more similar import price distributions, whether similarity is measured by 1st-4th moment statistics, population and consumption shares within world income and product price quantiles, or income and price dis-similarity indices.

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Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Elsevier in its journal Journal of International Economics.

Volume (Year): 77 (2009)
Issue (Month): 2 (April)
Pages: 265-275

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Handle: RePEc:eee:inecon:v:77:y:2009:i:2:p:265-275

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Web page: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505552

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Keywords: Quality differentiation Income distribution Import price distribution Luxemburg Income Study;

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References

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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Pablo D. Fajgelbaum & Gene M. Grossman & Elhanan Helpman, 2009. "Income Distribution, Product Quality, and International Trade," NBER Working Papers 15329, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  2. Luis Carvalho & Aurora A.C. Teixeira, 2011. "Where are the poor in International Economics?," FEP Working Papers 425, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
  3. Italo Colantone & Rosario Crinò, 2011. "New Imported Inputs, New Domestic Products," Development Working Papers 312, Centro Studi Luca d\'Agliano, University of Milano.
  4. Rosario Crinò & Paolo Epifani, 2009. "Productivity, Quality and Export Behavior (Revised version of: Firm-Export Intensity and Productivity, September 2011)," Development Working Papers 271, Centro Studi Luca d\'Agliano, University of Milano.
  5. Hélène LATZER & Florian MAYNERIS, 2012. "Income distribution and vertical comparative advantage Theory and evidence," Discussion Papers (IRES - Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales) 2012018, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES), revised 20 Oct 2012.
  6. Alcalá Francisco, 2009. "Time, Quality and Growth," Working Papers 201052, Fundacion BBVA / BBVA Foundation.
  7. Raphael Anton Auer & Thomas Chaney & Philip Ulrich Sauré, 2012. "Quality Pricing-to-Market," Working Papers 2012-11, Swiss National Bank.
  8. Markusen, James R., 2010. "Putting Per-Capita Income back into Trade Theory," CEPR Discussion Papers 7790, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  9. Hummels, David, 2001. "Time as a Trade Barrier," GTAP Working Papers 1152, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University.
  10. John Sutton & Daniel Trefler, 2011. "Deductions from the Export Basket: Capabilities, Wealth and Trade," NBER Working Papers 16834, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  11. Esteban Jaimovich & Vincenzo Merella, 2011. "Love for Quality, Comparative Advantage, and Trade," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 216, Collegio Carlo Alberto, revised 2012.
  12. Christian Hepenstrick, 2010. "Per-capita incomes and the extensive margin of bilateral trade," IEW - Working Papers 519, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
  13. Claudia Bernasconi, 2013. "Similarity of income distributions and the extensive and intensive margin of bilateral trade flows," ECON - Working Papers 115, Department of Economics - University of Zurich.
  14. Raphael Auer, 2009. "Product Heterogeneity, Within-Industry Trade Patterns, and the Home Bias of Consumption?," Working Papers 09.05, Swiss National Bank, Study Center Gerzensee.
  15. Roberto Basile & Sergio de Nardis & Alessandro Girardi, 2009. "Pricing to market when quality matters," ISAE Working Papers 123, ISTAT - Italian National Institute of Statistics - (Rome, ITALY).

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