Capabilities, Wealth, and Trade

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Sutton, John; Trefler, Daniel
• 署名单位: University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; University of Toronto; Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR); National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/686034
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 826-878
• 关键词: PRODUCT-QUALITY; INTERNATIONAL-TRADE; size; specialization; GLOBALIZATION; prices

摘要

We explore the relation between a country's income and the mix of products it exports. Both are simultaneously determined by countries' capabilities, that is, by countries' productivity and quality levels for each good. Our theoretical setup has two features. (1) Some goods have fewer high-quality producers/countries than others, meaning that there is comparative advantage. (2) Imperfect competition allows high- and low-quality producers to coexist. These two features generate an inverted-U, general equilibrium relationship between a country's export mix and its GDP per capita. We show that this inverted-U permeates the international data on trade and GDP per capita.