Market Imperfections, Wealth Inequality, and the Distribution of Trade Gains

Manuel Oechslin () and Reto Foellmi

No 266, IEW - Working Papers from Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich

Abstract: We explore the role of the ownership structure of capital in an economy that suffers from barriers to entry and an imperfect financial system. In such an environment, an unequal distribution of capital provides an explanation for trade flows and trade gains even when countries do not differ in relative factor endowments or available technologies. Moreover, an uneven asset distribution is associated with a large import-competing sector and only a small number of export-oriented entrepreneurs. Along these lines, we suggest that an unequal asset distribution may be key to understand why still many less developed countries protect their firms from foreign competition.

Keywords: inequality; trade policy; economic development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F13 O11 O16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/52223/1/iewwp266.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Market imperfections, wealth inequality, and the distribution of trade gains (2010)
Working Paper: Market Imperfections, Wealth Inequality, and the Distribution of Trade Gains (2010)
Working Paper: Market Imperfections, Wealth Inequality, and the Distribution of Trade Gains (2010)
Working Paper: Market Imperfections, Wealth Inequality, and the Distribution of Trade Gains (2009)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zur:iewwpx:266

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IEW - Working Papers from Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Severin Oswald ().