New Trade Models, Same Old Gains?

Costas Arkolakis, Arnaud Costinot, Andrés Rodríguez-Clare

NBER Working Paper No. 15628
Issued in December 2009
NBER Program(s):   EFG   IFM   ITI

Micro-level data have had a profound influence on research in international trade over the last ten years. In many regards, this research agenda has been very successful. New stylized facts have been uncovered and new trade models have been developed to explain these facts. In this paper we investigate to which extent answers to new micro-level questions have affected answers to an old and central question in the field: How large are the gains from trade? A crude summary of our results is: "So far, not much."

(380 K)

Published: Costas Arkolakis & Arnaud Costinot & Andres Rodriguez-Clare, 2012. "New Trade Models, Same Old Gains?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(1), pages 94-130, February.

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Acknowledgments

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