Trade, Quality Upgrading, and Input Linkages: Theory and Evidence from Colombia

Ana Cecília Fieler, Marcela Eslava and Yi Xu (daniel.xu@duke.edu)

American Economic Review, 2018, vol. 108, issue 1, 109-46

Abstract: A quantitative model brings together theories linking international trade to quality, technology, and demand for skills. Standard effects of trade on importers and exporters are magnified through domestic input linkages. We estimate the model with data from Colombian manufacturing firms before the 1991 trade liberalization. A counterfactual trade liberalization is broadly consistent with post-liberalization data. It increases skill intensity from 12 to 16 percent, while decreasing sales. Imported inputs, estimated to be of higher quality, and domestic input linkages are quantitatively important. Economies of scale, export expansion, and reallocation of production are small and cannot explain post-liberalization data.

JEL-codes: F14 F16 J24 L60 O14 O19 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.20150796
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (102)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20150796 (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=6075 (application/zip)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrie ... 8H4y1UkYy0TgJhJ0IR5o (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrie ... GSisAwlBEOIh9Gg1b30p (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
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:aea:aecrev:v:108:y:2018:i:1:p:109-46

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Review is currently edited by Esther Duflo

More articles in American Economic Review from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert (mpa@aeapubs.org).