Trade barriers and the relative price of tradables

A-Tier
Journal: Journal of International Economics
Year: 2015
Volume: 96
Issue: 2
Pages: 398-411

Score contribution per author:

4.022 = (α=2.01 / 1 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

In this paper I quantitatively address the role of trade barriers in explaining why prices of services relative to tradables are positively correlated with levels of development across countries. I argue that trade barriers play a crucial role in shaping the cross-country pattern of specialization across many tradable goods. I construct a multi-country, general equilibrium model of trade and derive tractable predictions that show how specialization affects relative prices. I calibrate the model to match the patterns of prices, levels of development, and bilateral trade across 103 countries. Through counterfactuals I find that removing trade barriers eliminates more than half of the gap in the relative price of services between rich and poor countries with only a minimal systematic effect on the absolute price of tradables.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:inecon:v:96:y:2015:i:2:p:398-411
Journal Field
International
Author Count
1
Added to Database
2026-01-29