Trade, inequality, and the political economy of institutions

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Do, Quy-Toan; Levchenko, Andrei A.
• 署名单位: University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; International Monetary Fund
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0531
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2008.11.007
• 发表日期: 2009
• 页码: 1489-1520
• 关键词: institutions; Entry barriers; international trade; heterogeneous firms; political economy

摘要

This paper investigates the relationship between international trade and the quality of economic institutions. We model institutions as fixed costs of entry, in a framework that has two key features. First, preferences over entry costs differ across firms and depend on firm size. Larger firms prefer to set higher costs of entry, in order to reduce competition. Second, these costs are endogeneously determined in a political economy equilibrium. Trade opening can lead to higher entry costs when it changes the political power in favor of a small elite of large exporters, who in turn prefer to install high entry barriers. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.