IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/50301.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Trade Liberalization, Division of Labor, and Firm Productivity

Author

Listed:
  • Kamei, Keita

Abstract

In this paper, we construct a simplified general oligopolistic equilibrium (GOLE) model, in which Smith's (1776) famous theory of division of labor is embedded. In the absence of labor market integration with trading countries, we show that trade liberalization promotes a reduction of the number of firms in each country and a deeper division of labor, thus increasing firm productivity and improving welfare. Our model suggests a new interpretation of the trade-induced firm productivity effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Kamei, Keita, 2013. "Trade Liberalization, Division of Labor, and Firm Productivity," MPRA Paper 50301, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:50301
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/50301/1/MPRA_paper_50301.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chaney, Thomas & Ossa, Ralph, 2013. "Market size, division of labor, and firm productivity," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 177-180.
    2. Carsten Eckel & J. Peter Neary, 2010. "Multi-Product Firms and Flexible Manufacturing in the Global Economy," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 77(1), pages 188-217.
    3. Krugman, Paul R., 1979. "Increasing returns, monopolistic competition, and international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 469-479, November.
    4. Andrew B. Bernard & Jonathan Eaton & J. Bradford Jensen & Samuel Kortum, 2003. "Plants and Productivity in International Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1268-1290, September.
    5. Avinash K. Dixit & Gene M. Grossman, 1982. "Trade and Protection with Multistage Production," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 49(4), pages 583-594.
    6. Andrew B. Bernard & Stephen J. Redding & Peter K. Schott, 2011. "Multiproduct Firms and Trade Liberalization," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(3), pages 1271-1318.
    7. Thomas Chaney & Ralph Ossa, 2013. "Market Size, Division of Labor, and Firm Productivity," Post-Print hal-03579667, HAL.
    8. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/312fvs95ub8ct80ng4em8fjifb is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Joachim Wagner, 2016. "International Trade and Firm Performance: A Survey of Empirical Studies since 2006," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Microeconometrics of International Trade, chapter 2, pages 43-87, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    10. 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.
    11. J. Peter Neary, 2002. "The road less travelled : oligopoly and competition policy in general equilibrium," Working Papers 200222, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    12. George J. Stigler, 1951. "The Division of Labor is Limited by the Extent of the Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(3), pages 185-185.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kamei, Keita, 2014. "Pro-competitive effect, division of labor, and firm productivity," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 124(1), pages 132-135.
    2. Shintaku, Koji, 2015. "Decision on the number of export markets firms enter and the optimal division of labor within firms," MPRA Paper 62138, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Koji Shintaku, 2014. "The Division of Labor within Firms, Optimal Entry, and Firm Productivity," Discussion papers e-14-012, Graduate School of Economics Project Center, Kyoto University.

    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. Chaney, Thomas & Ossa, Ralph, 2013. "Market size, division of labor, and firm productivity," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 177-180.
    2. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/312fvs95ub8ct80ng4em8fjifb is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Thomas Chaney & Ralph Ossa, 2013. "Market Size, Division of Labor, and Firm Productivity," SciencePo Working papers hal-03579667, HAL.
    4. Kamei, Keita, 2014. "Pro-competitive effect, division of labor, and firm productivity," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 124(1), pages 132-135.
    5. Maria Bas & Vanessa Strauss-Kahn, 2014. "Does importing more inputs raise exports? Firm-level evidence from France," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 150(2), pages 241-275, May.
    6. Carlo Perroni & Davide Suverato, 2023. "Skills scarcity and export intensity," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(2), pages 719-757, May.
    7. Thomas Chaney & Ralph Ossa, 2013. "Market Size, Division of Labor, and Firm Productivity," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03579667, HAL.
    8. Ralph Ossa, 2007. "Trade Liberalization, Outsourcing, and Firm Productivity," CEP Discussion Papers dp0814, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    9. 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.
    10. Thomas Chaney & Ralph Ossa, 2013. "Market Size, Division of Labor, and Firm Productivity," Post-Print hal-03579667, HAL.
    11. Sharma, Chandan, 2018. "Exporting, access of foreign technology, and firms’ performance: Searching the link in Indian manufacturing," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 46-62.
    12. Kenji Fujiwara & Keita Kamei, 2018. "Trade liberalization, division of labor and welfare under oligopoly," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 91-101, January.
    13. Head, Keith & Mayer, Thierry, 2014. "Gravity Equations: Workhorse,Toolkit, and Cookbook," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 131-195, Elsevier.
    14. Robert Elliott & Supreeya Virakul, 2010. "Multi-product firms and exporting: a developing country perspective," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 146(4), pages 635-656, December.
    15. Ma, Yue & Tang, Heiwai & Zhang, Yifan, 2014. "Factor Intensity, product switching, and productivity: Evidence from Chinese exporters," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 349-362.
    16. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen & Stephen J. Redding & Peter K. Schott, 2007. "Firms in International Trade," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(3), pages 105-130, Summer.
    17. Ming Xu & Tenglong Zhong & Qian Xie & Hongkui Liu, 2022. "Foreign Demand, Competition Strategy, and Export Markups: Evidence from Chinese Multi‐Product Exporters," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 30(3), pages 187-209, May.
    18. Shintaku, Koji, 2015. "Decision on the number of export markets firms enter and the optimal division of labor within firms," MPRA Paper 62138, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Koji Shintaku, 2014. "The Division of Labor within Firms, Optimal Entry, and Firm Productivity," Discussion papers e-14-012, Graduate School of Economics Project Center, Kyoto University.
    20. Goya, Daniel, 2021. "The network effect of Chinese competition on what domestic suppliers produce," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    21. Jože Damijan & Jozef Konings & Sašo Polanec, 2013. "Pass-on trade: why do firms simultaneously engage in two-way trade in the same varieties?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 149(1), pages 85-111, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Trade Liberalization; Division of Labor; Firm Productivity; Cournot Competition; General Oligopolistic Equilibrium (GOLE);
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F1 - International Economics - - Trade
    • F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation
    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions
    • L1 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance
    • L16 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Industrial Organization and Macroeconomics; Macroeconomic Industrial Structure

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pra:mprapa:50301. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.