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Variety Gains and the Extensive Margin of Trade

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  • Mohler, Lukas

    (University of Basel)

Abstract

Findings from the literature suggest that previous estimates of the variety gains from trade are too small because of the imprecise measurement of the imported variety set under the Armington assumption. In this contribution, I use results from the literature on multi-product firms to obtain variety gain estimates that account for the entry and exit of firms as well as for product turnover within firms and find that welfare gains increase by a factor of 2.5 compared to the baseline Armington product-country variety differentiation case. I furthermore modify the lambda ratios presented in Feenstra (1994) by assuming that all import variations are due to extensive margin adjustments. Under this extreme assumption, variety gains increase by a factor of six but remain modest in magnitude.

Suggested Citation

  • Mohler, Lukas, 2012. "Variety Gains and the Extensive Margin of Trade," Working papers 2012/16, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    • Handle: RePEc:bsl:wpaper:2012/16
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    Cited by:

    1. Demian Calin-Vlad, 2013. "Eu enlargement and the gains from trade," FIW Working Paper series 108, FIW.
    2. Ulf Lewrick & Lukas Mohler & Rolf Weder, 2016. "Trade in variety and domestic production: Evidence from US manufacturing," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 49(4), pages 1631-1657, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Margins of trade; welfare gains from trade; multi-product firm;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade

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