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Powerless : gains from trade when firm productivity is not Pareto distributed

Author

Listed:
  • Marco Bee

    (Department of Economics and Management, Universtiy of Trento)

  • Stefano Schiavo

    (Department of Economics and Management, Universtiy of Trento and OFCE-DRIC)

Abstract
Most trade models featuring heterogeneous rms assume a Pareto productivity distribution, on the basis that it provides a reasonable representation of the data and because of its analytical tractability. However, recent work shows that the characteristics of the productiv- ity distribution crucially affect the estimated gains from trade. This paper thoroughly compares the gains from trade obtained under dif- ferent productivity distributions: we find that both the magnitude of the welfare gains and the relative importance of the fixed versus variable trade costs change significantly. Relying blindly on a single distribution is therefore dangerous when performing welfare analysis.

Suggested Citation

  • Marco Bee & Stefano Schiavo, 2015. "Powerless : gains from trade when firm productivity is not Pareto distributed," Documents de Travail de l'OFCE 2015-19, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE).
    • Handle: RePEc:fce:doctra:1519
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    File URL: http://www.ofce.sciences-po.fr/pdf/dtravai/WP2015-19.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Bawa, Siraj, 2017. "Corporate Taxation in the Open Economy without Pareto," MPRA Paper 80857, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Aug 2017.
    2. Ruben Dewitte & Michel Dumont & Glenn Rayp & Peter Willemé, 2022. "Unobserved heterogeneity in the productivity distribution and gains from trade," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(3), pages 1566-1597, August.
    3. Letizia Montinari & Massimo Riccaboni & Stefano Schiavo, 2021. "Innovation, trade and multi‐product firms," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(1), pages 311-337, February.
    4. Anders Rosenstand Laugesen, 2015. "Asymmetric Monotone Comparative Statics for the Industry Compositions," Economics Working Papers 2015-22, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    5. Monika Mrázová & J. Peter Neary & Mathieu Parenti, 2021. "Sales and Markup Dispersion: Theory and Empirics," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(4), pages 1753-1788, July.
    6. Mrázová, Monika & Neary, J. Peter, 2020. "IO for exports(s)," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    7. Peter Neary & Monika MrázováMathieu Parenti, 2015. "Technology, Demand, And The Size Distribution Of Firms," Economics Series Working Papers 774, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    8. Ruben Dewitte & Bruno Merlevede & Glenn Rayp, 2024. "Gains from trade: Demand, supply, and idiosyncratic shocks," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(5), pages 870-886, August.
    9. Calin-Vlad Demian & Filippo di Mauro, 2018. "The exchange rate, asymmetric shocks and asymmetric distributions," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 154, pages 68-85.
    10. Polanec Sašo & Smith Paul A. & Bavdaž Mojca, 2022. "Determination of the Threshold in Cutoff Sampling Using Response Burden with an Application to Intrastat," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 38(4), pages 1205-1234, December.
    11. Dewitte, Ruben, 2020. "From Heavy-Tailed Micro to Macro: on the characterization of firm-level heterogeneity and its aggregation properties," MPRA Paper 103170, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Iognormal; Pareto; Weibull; international trade; welfare; firm heterogeneity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation

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