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Two and a Half Theories of Trade

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  • Neary, Peter

Abstract

This paper discusses the place of oligopoly in international trade theory, and argues that it is unsatisfactory to ignore firms altogether, as in perfectly competitive models, or to view large firms as more productive clones of small ones, as in monopolistically competitive models. Doing either fails to account for the "granularity" in the size distribution of firms and for the dominance of large firms in exporting. The paper outlines three ways of developing more convincing models of oligopoly, which allow for free entry but do not lose sight of the grains in "granularity": heterogeneous industries, natural oligopoly, and superstar firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Neary, Peter, 2009. "Two and a Half Theories of Trade," CEPR Discussion Papers 7600, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:7600
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    Cited by:

    1. Jörn Kleinert & Julien Martin & Farid Toubal, 2015. "The Few Leading the Many: Foreign Affiliates and Business Cycle Comovement," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(4), pages 134-159, October.
    2. Forslid, Rikard & Okubo, Toshihiro, 2017. "Early agglomeration or late agglomeration?: Two phases of development with spatial sorting," CEPR Discussion Papers 11977, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Soegaard, Christian, 2013. "An Oligopolistic Theory of Regional Trade Agreements," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1007, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    4. Brander, James A. & Spencer, Barbara J., 2015. "Intra-industry trade with Bertrand and Cournot oligopoly: The role of endogenous horizontal product differentiation," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 157-165.
    5. Tomasz Serwach, 2011. "Od handlu między państwami do handlu na poziomie przedsiębiorstw," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 3, pages 47-65.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gole (general oligopolistic equilibrium); Granularity; Heterogeneous firms; International trade and market structure;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

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

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