IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/econom/v68y2001i269p27-44.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Efficiency Gaps, Love of Variety and International Trade

Author

Listed:
  • Catia Montagna

Abstract

We develop a general equilibrium monopolistic competition model of trade with technical heterogeneity among firms and countries. With free entry, technical asymmetries between firms result in the endogenous determination of the equilibrium average efficiency of the industry. We show that trade reduces (increases) the minimum efficiency required to survive in the more (less) efficient country. This has important welfare implications: (1) Contrary to the constant elasticity of substitution homogeneous‐firms model, trade affects welfare even when there is no love of variety. (2) There are circumstances in which trade liberalization leads to a loss of consumer welfare.

Suggested Citation

  • Catia Montagna, 2001. "Efficiency Gaps, Love of Variety and International Trade," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 68(269), pages 27-44, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:econom:v:68:y:2001:i:269:p:27-44
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-0335.00231
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0335.00231
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1468-0335.00231?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Romer, Paul, 1994. "New goods, old theory, and the welfare costs of trade restrictions," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 5-38, February.
    2. Oulton, Nicholas, 1998. "Competition and the Dispersion of Labour Productivity amongst UK Companies," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 50(1), pages 23-38, January.
    3. Smith, Alasdair & Venables, Anthony J., 1988. "Completing the internal market in the European Community : Some industry simulations," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 1501-1525, September.
    4. Mueller,Dennis C., 2009. "Profits in the Long Run," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521101592.
    5. Anthony Venables, 1994. "Integration and the export behaviour of firms: Trade costs, trade volumes and welfare," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 130(1), pages 118-132, March.
    6. Venables, Anthony J, 1987. "Trade and Trade Policy with Differentiated Products: A Chamberlinian-Ricardian Model," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 97(387), pages 700-717, September.
    7. David Dollar & Edward N. Wolff, 1993. "Competitiveness, Convergence, and International Specialization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262041359, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:dun:dpaper:90 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Toru Kikuchi, 2010. "A simple model of foreign brand penetration under monopolistic competition," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 100(3), pages 235-245, July.
    3. Ardelean, Adina & Lugovskyy, Volodymyr, 2010. "Domestic productivity and variety gains from trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 280-291, March.
    4. Willenbockel, Dirk, 2004. "Specification choice and robustness in CGE trade policy analysis with imperfect competition," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 1065-1099, December.
    5. Jean-Marc Burniaux & Jean Waelbroeck, 1995. "Le cycle de l'Uruguay et sa problématique," Revue Économique, Programme National Persée, vol. 46(3), pages 691-701.
    6. Trabold, Harald & Parvati Trubswetter & Philipp J H Schroder, 2003. "Intermediation in Foreign Trade: When do Exporters Rely on Intermediaries?," Royal Economic Society Annual Conference 2003 206, Royal Economic Society.
    7. de Groot, H.L.F. & van Schaik, A.B.T.M., 1997. "Unemployment and catching up : Europe vis à vis the USA," Other publications TiSEM da7dcf42-9007-43df-a948-e, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    8. Smulders, Sjak & van de Klundert, Theo, 1995. "Imperfect competition, concentration and growth with firm-specific R & D," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 139-160, January.
    9. Brander, James A., 1995. "Strategic trade policy," Handbook of International Economics, in: G. M. Grossman & K. Rogoff (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 27, pages 1395-1455, Elsevier.
    10. David De Remer, 2013. "Domestic Policy Coordination in Imperfectly Competitive Markets," Working Papers ECARES ECARES 2013-46, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    11. Benkovskis, Konstantins & Wörz, Julia, 2018. "What drives the market share changes? Price versus non-price factors," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 9-29.
    12. Anthony Venables, 1994. "Trade Policy under Imperfect Competition: A Numerical Assessment," NBER Chapters, in: Empirical Studies of Strategic Trade Policy, pages 41-66, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Kumar, Sanjesh & Singh, Baljeet, 2019. "Barriers to the international diffusion of technological innovations," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 74-86.
    14. Stefan Hirsch & Adelina Gschwandtner, 2013. "Profit persistence in the food industry: evidence from five European countries," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 40(5), pages 741-759, December.
    15. Kym Anderson, 2005. "On the Virtues of Multilateral Trade Negotiations," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 81(255), pages 414-438, December.
    16. Brett M. Frischmann & Christiaan Hogendorn, 2015. "Retrospectives: The Marginal Cost Controversy," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 29(1), pages 193-206, Winter.
    17. De Bonis, Valeria, 1997. "Regional integration and factor income taxation," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1849, The World Bank.
    18. Greenaway, David & Torstensson, Johan, 2000. "Economic Geography, Comparative Advantage and Trade within Industries: Evidence from the OECD," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 15, pages 260-280.
    19. André de Waal, 2011. "Strategy Only Matters A Bit: The role of Strategy in the High Performance Organization," Working Papers 2011/02, Maastricht School of Management.
    20. Andres Rodriguez-Clare, 1996. "The role of trade in technology diffusion," Discussion Paper / Institute for Empirical Macroeconomics 114, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    21. Chang, Sungyong & Kim, Hyunseob & Song, Jaeyong & Lee, Keun, 2021. "Dynamics of Imitation versus Innovation in Technological Leadership Change: Latecomers’ Catch-up Strategies in Diverse Technological Regimes," SocArXiv b8fae, Center for Open Science.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:econom:v:68:y:2001:i:269:p:27-44. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.