We investigate trade and financial openness in a small developing country where entrepreneurs need bank financing to operate in an import-competing sector but banks do not observe their ability. This informational asymmetry causes adverse selection of low-ability individuals into entrepreneurship and also prevents poor but able individuals from being entrepreneurs. We find that trade opening improves national welfare, but a tax is needed on foreign financial capital. Trade opening reduces an income gap between the rich and the poor, while financial opening affects this income gap ambiguously.
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