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Full-Text Articles in International Economics
Geography, Trade And Power-Law Phenomena, Pao-Li Chang, Wen-Tai Hsu
Geography, Trade And Power-Law Phenomena, Pao-Li Chang, Wen-Tai Hsu
Research Collection School Of Economics
This article provides a review on the theories of various power-law phenomena related to geography and trade. In particular, we focus our discussion on the gravity equation of trade flows, the power law in firm size, and the link between the two - highlighting the roles of geography and trade in the theoretical modeling. We also discuss how these two power-law phenomena may be related to other power-law phenomena, such as those in income, firm productivity and city size.
Income Inequality, Productivity, And International Trade, Wen-Tai Hsu, Lin Lu, Pierre Picard
Income Inequality, Productivity, And International Trade, Wen-Tai Hsu, Lin Lu, Pierre Picard
Research Collection School Of Economics
This paper discusses the effect of income inequality on selection and aggregate productivity in a general equilibrium model with non-homothetic preferences. It shows the existence of a negative relationship between the number and quantity of products consumed by an income group and the earnings of other income groups. It also highlights the negative effect of a mean-preserving spread of income on aggregate productivity through the softening of firms’ selection. This effect is however mitigated in the presence of international trade. In a quantitative analysis, it is shown that an excessively large mean-preserving spread of income may harm the rich as …