IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/reviec/v26y2018i5p1154-1177.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Competitive selection, trade, and employment: The strategic use of subsidies

Author

Listed:
  • Hassan Molana
  • Catia Montagna

Abstract

Within a heterogeneous‐firms model with endogenous labor supply, intra‐industry competitive selection is shown to affect the impact of wage (and entry) subsidies. Optimal uniform wage subsidies are always positive even though, by reducing industry selectivity, they lower average productivity. Because of international selection and fiscal externalities, noncooperative policies entail under‐subsidization of wages. Targeted (domestic‐only or export) wage subsidies are dominated from a welfare point of view by a uniform subsidy. While always having an opposite effect on average productivity, an optimal entry subsidy is shown to be less effective than an optimal uniform wage subsidy in raising employment and welfare.

Suggested Citation

  • Hassan Molana & Catia Montagna, 2018. "Competitive selection, trade, and employment: The strategic use of subsidies," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5), pages 1154-1177, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:reviec:v:26:y:2018:i:5:p:1154-1177
    DOI: 10.1111/roie.12354
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/roie.12354
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/roie.12354?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hassan Molana & Catia Montagna & Chang Yee Kwan, 2012. "Subsidies As Optimal Fiscal Stimuli," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(Supplemen), pages 149-167, December.
    2. repec:bla:buecrs:v:64:y:2012:i::p:s149-s167 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Fabio Ghironi & Marc J. Melitz, 2005. "International Trade and Macroeconomic Dynamics with Heterogeneous Firms," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(3), pages 865-915.
    4. Giuseppe Moscarini & Fabien Postel-Vinay, 2012. "The Contribution of Large and Small Employers to Job Creation in Times of High and Low Unemployment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(6), pages 2509-2539, October.
    5. Marc J. Melitz, 2003. "The Impact of Trade on Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(6), pages 1695-1725, November.
    6. Florin O. Bilbiie & Fabio Ghironi & Marc J. Melitz, 2019. "Monopoly Power and Endogenous Product Variety: Distortions and Remedies," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 140-174, October.
    7. Haaland, Jan I. & Venables, Anthony J., 2016. "Optimal trade policy with monopolistic competition and heterogeneous firms," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 85-95.
    8. Nestor Gandelman & Ruben Hernandez-Murillo, 2015. "Risk Aversion at the Country Level," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 97(1), pages 53-66.
    9. Gabriele Cardullo & Bruno Van der Linden, 2007. "Employment Subsidies and Substitutable Skills: An Equilibrium Matching Approach," Applied Economics Quarterly (formerly: Konjunkturpolitik), Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 53(4), pages 375-404.
    10. Demidova, Svetlana & Rodríguez-Clare, Andrés, 2009. "Trade policy under firm-level heterogeneity in a small economy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(1), pages 100-112, June.
    11. Michael W. L. Elsby & Ryan Michaels, 2013. "Marginal Jobs, Heterogeneous Firms, and Unemployment Flows," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(1), pages 1-48, January.
    12. Layard, P R G & Nickell, S J, 1980. "The Case for Subsidising Extra Jobs," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 90(357), pages 51-73, March.
    13. Dixit, Avinash K & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1977. "Monopolistic Competition and Optimum Product Diversity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(3), pages 297-308, June.
    14. Kluve, Jochen, 2010. "The effectiveness of European active labor market programs," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 904-918, December.
    15. Olivier Blanchard & Florence Jaumotte & Prakash Loungani, 2014. "Labor market policies and IMF advice in advanced economies during the Great Recession," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-23, December.
    16. Johnson, George E, 1980. "The Theory of Labour Market Intervention," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 47(187), pages 309-329, August.
    17. Jackman, R A & Layard, P R G, 1980. "The Efficiency Case for Long-Run Labour Market Policies," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 47(187), pages 331-349, August.
    18. Benedicta Marzinotto & Jean Pisani-Ferry & Guntram B. Wolff, 2011. "An action plan for the European leaders," Policy Contributions 582, Bruegel.
    19. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/59cr4u3mmr9pobrceptvua5g8c is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Felbermayr, Gabriel & Jung, Benjamin & Larch, Mario, 2013. "Optimal tariffs, retaliation, and the welfare loss from tariff wars in the Melitz model," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 13-25.
    21. Nicholas Kaldor, 1936. "Wage Subsidies as a Remedy for Unemployment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 44(6), pages 721-721.
    22. Leahy, Dermot & Montagna, Catia, 2001. "Strategic Trade Policy with Heterogeneous Costs," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 177-182, July.
    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. Hassan Molana & Catia Montagna, 2016. "Selection, Trade, and Employment: The Strategic Use of Subsidies," Dundee Discussion Papers in Economics 296, Economic Studies, University of Dundee.
    2. Hassan Molana, 2015. "Selection, Trade, and Employment: the Strategic Use of Subsidies. WWWforEurope Policy Paper No. 21," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 57894, February.
    3. Ziran Ding, 2022. "Firm heterogeneity, variable markups, and multinational production: A review from trade policy perspective," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(5), pages 1311-1357, December.
    4. Nocco, Antonella & Ottaviano, Gianmarco I.P. & Salto, Matteo, 2019. "Geography, competition, and optimal multilateral trade policy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 145-161.
    5. Arnaud Costinot & Andrés Rodríguez‐Clare & Iván Werning, 2020. "Micro to Macro: Optimal Trade Policy With Firm Heterogeneity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(6), pages 2739-2776, November.
    6. Demidova, Svetlana, 2017. "Trade policies, firm heterogeneity, and variable markups," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 260-273.
    7. Takatsuka, Hajime & Zeng, Dao-Zhi, 2016. "Nontariff protection without an outside good," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 65-78.
    8. Wolfgang Lechthaler & Mariya Mileva, 2021. "The Dynamic And Distributional Aspects Of Import Tariffs," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 62(1), pages 199-241, February.
    9. Hamano, Masashige & Zanetti, Francesco, 2022. "Monetary policy, firm heterogeneity, and product variety," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    10. Fabrice Defever & Alejandro Riaño, 2012. "China's Pure Exporter Subsidies," CEP Discussion Papers dp1182, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    11. Pflüger, Michael & Suedekum, Jens, 2013. "Subsidizing firm entry in open economies," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 258-271.
    12. Wolfgang Lechthaler, 2017. "Ben Bernanke in Doha: The Effect of Monetary Policy on Optimal Tariffs," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 49(8), pages 1715-1746, December.
    13. Fadinger, Harald & Campolmi, Alessia & Forlati, Chiara, 2018. "Trade and Domestic Policies under Monopolistic Competition," CEPR Discussion Papers 13219, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Melitz, Marc J. & Redding, Stephen J., 2014. "Heterogeneous Firms and Trade," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 1-54, Elsevier.
    15. Haaland, Jan I. & Venables, Anthony J., 2016. "Optimal trade policy with monopolistic competition and heterogeneous firms," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 85-95.
    16. Rishi R. Sharma, 2018. "Optimal tariffs with inframarginal exporters," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 768-783, September.
    17. Cheng-wei Chang & Ching-chong Lai & Ting-wei Lai, 2020. "Fiscal stimulus in a simple macroeconomic model of monopolistic competition with firm heterogeneity," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 71(3), pages 447-477, July.
    18. Mario Larch & Wolfgang Lechthaler, 2013. "Whom to send to Doha? The Short-sighted Ones!," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 16(4), pages 634-649, October.
    19. Kohl, Miriam & Richter, Philipp M., 2023. "Unilateral tax policy in the open economy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    20. Federico Etro, 2012. "Endogenous Market Structures and International Trade. II: Optimal Trade Policy," Working Papers 2012:32, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".

    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:reviec:v:26:y:2018:i:5:p:1154-1177. 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: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0965-7576 .

    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.