Geography, non-homotheticity, and industrialization: A quantitative analysis

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Breinlich, Holger; Cunat, Alejandro
• 署名单位: University of Essex; University of Essex; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; University of Vienna
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2013.01.005
• 发表日期: 2013
• 页码: 133-153
• 关键词: Industrialization; Economic geography; international trade

摘要

We propose a quantitative framework for the analysis of industrialization in which specialization in manufacturing or agriculture is driven by comparative advantage and non-homothetic preferences. Countries are integrated through trade but trade is not costless and geographic position matters. We use a number of analytical examples and a multi-country calibration to explain two important empirical regularities: (i) there is a strong positive correlation between proximity to large markets and levels of manufacturing activity; (ii) there is a positive correlation between the ratio of agricultural to manufacturing productivity and shares of manufacturing in GDP. Our calibrated model replicates these facts and also provides a better fit to cross-sectional data on manufacturing shares than frameworks which ignore the role of trade costs or non-homotheticity. We use the calibrated model to quantitatively analyze the effect of increases in agricultural productivity and a further lowering of trade barriers. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.