Essays on trade liberalization with firm heterogeneity
Vashchilko, Aleksandr
:
2008-09-15
Abstract
The dissertation studies the effect of trade liberalization in one sector on factor prices, employment, and average productivity of firms in the other sector (spillover effect) in a two-country, specific-factors model of international trade where the industry structure of the sector affected by spillover effect is similar to that of Melitz, 2003. I found that the spillover effect of trade liberalization on the average productivity of firms depends on sector being of comparative advantage/disadvantage in the case the trade liberalization occurs in sector with constant returns to scale in production and perfect competition market structure. The average productivity of firms in the sector affected by spillover effect decreases if this sector is of comparative disadvantage, while the average productivity of firms increase if this sector is of comparative advantage. This result holds for the case when both sectors have market structure similar to that of Melitz, 2003 and comparative advantage is driven by differences in capital.