Explaining Cross-Country Productivity Differences in Retail Trade

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lagakos, David
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California San Diego; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/684718
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 579-620
• 关键词: real exchange-rate; wal-mart; TECHNOLOGY; industrialization; informality; PROTECTION; barriers; ECONOMY; prices; sector

摘要

Many macroeconomists argue that productivity is low in developing countries because of frictions that impede the adoption of modern technologies. I argue that in the retail trade sector, developing countries rationally choose technologies with low measured labor productivity. My theory is that the adoption of modern retail technologies is optimal only when household ownership of complementary durable goods, such as cars, is widespread. Because income is low in the developing world, households own few such durables. The theory implies that policies that increase measured retail productivity do not necessarily increase welfare.