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World Trade Patterns and Prices: The Role of Productivity and Quality Heterogeneity

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  • Cristiana

    (European University Institute)

  • Teodora Borota

    (Uppsala University)

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    Abstract

    This paper analyzes the role of product quality and labor efficiency in shaping the trade patterns and trade intensities within and across two groups of countries, the developed and richer North and the developing South. Recent empirical literature identifies a positive relation between income per capita and both export and import prices, and also the import prices conditional on exporter. Instead of relying on specific demand side mechanisms such as non-homothetic preferences, we focus on the North-South differences in technology in a four country North-South trade model with two dimensions of firm het- erogeneity. Differences in firms’ product qualities and cost efficiencies result in a price distribution generating different consumption bundles and the observed export and import prices across rich and poor countries. Furthermore, the resulting total expenditure allocation across quality shows that the North (South) spends a larger share of its income on high (low) quality even with the same homothetic preferences across regions.

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    Bibliographic Info

    Paper provided by National Bank of Serbia in its series Working papers with number 19.

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    Length: 28 pages
    Date of creation: Jul 2011
    Date of revision:
    Handle: RePEc:nsb:wpaper:19

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    Postal: National Bank of Serbia, 12 Kralja Petra St, 11 000 Belgrade, Republic of Serbia
    Phone: 381-11/3248-841
    Fax: 381-11/3234-120
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    Web page: http://www.nbs.rs
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    Related research

    Keywords: International trade patterns; North-South trade; import and export prices; heterogeneous firms; product quality;

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    References

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    Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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    1. Olivier Coibion & Liran Einav & Juan Carlos Hallak, 2006. "Equilibrium Demand Elasticities across Quality Segments," Working Papers 550, Research Seminar in International Economics, University of Michigan.
    2. Brooks, Eileen L., 2006. "Why don't firms export more? Product quality and Colombian plants," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(1), pages 160-178, June.
    3. Marla Ripoll & Juan Carlos Cordoba, 2005. "Endogenous TFP and Cross-Country Income Differences," Working Papers 247, University of Pittsburgh, Department of Economics, revised Jan 2005.
    4. David Hummels & Alexandre Skiba, 2004. "Shipping the Good Apples Out? An Empirical Confirmation of the Alchian-Allen Conjecture," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(6), pages 1384-1402, December.
    5. Hallak, Juan Carlos, 2006. "Product quality and the direction of trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 238-265, January.
    6. Juan Carlos Hallak, 2010. "A Product-Quality View of the Linder Hypothesis," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(3), pages 453-466, August.
    7. Lionel Fontagné & Guillaume Gaulier & Soledad Zignago, 2008. "Specialization across varieties and North-South competition," Economic Policy, CEPR & CES & MSH, vol. 23, pages 51-91, 01.
    8. Yo Chul Choi & David Hummels & Chong Xiang, 2006. "Explaining Import Variety and Quality: The Role of the Income Distribution," NBER Working Papers 12531, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Alain Gabler & Omar Licandro, 2007. "Endogenous Growth through Selection and Imitation," Economics Working Papers ECO2007/26, European University Institute.
    10. Juan Carlos Hallak & Jagadeesh Sivadasan, 2009. "Firms' Exporting Behavior under Quality Constraints," Working Papers 09-13, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    11. Johnson, Robert C., 2012. "Trade and prices with heterogeneous firms," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 43-56.
    12. Juan Carlos Hallak & Peter K. Schott, 2011. "Estimating Cross-Country Differences in Product Quality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 126(1), pages 417-474.
    13. Huergo, Elena & Jaumandreu, Jordi, 2004. "Firms' age, process innovation and productivity growth," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 541-559, April.
    14. Elena Huergo & Jordi Jaumandreu, 2004. "How Does Probability of Innovation Change with Firm Age?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 22(3_4), pages 193-207, 04.
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