Accounting for trade patterns

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Redding, Stephen J.; Weinstein, David E.
• 署名单位: Princeton University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; Columbia University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2024.103910
• 发表日期: 2024
• 关键词: comparative advantage; TRADE; prices; QUALITY; variety

摘要

We develop a quantitative framework for decomposing trade patterns. We derive price indexes that determine comparative advantage and the aggregate cost of living. If firms and products are imperfect substitutes, we show that these price indexes depend on variety, average appeal (including quality), and the dispersion of appeal -adjusted prices. We show that they are only weakly related to standard empirical measures of average prices. We find that 40 percent of the cross-section variation in comparative advantage, and 90 percent of the time -series variation, is accounted for by variety and average appeal, with less than 10 percent attributed to average prices.