Measured Aggregate Gains from International Trade

Ariel Burstein and Javier Cravino

American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 2015, vol. 7, issue 2, 181-218

Abstract: We examine the implications of workhorse trade models for how aggregate productivity, real GDP and real consumption, as measured by statistical agencies, respond to changes in trade costs. In a range of models, changes in measured productivity are equal to the inverse of an export-share weighted average of changes in variable trade costs incurred domestically. Under certain conditions, despite the multiple biases in the CPI, measured real consumption captures the first-order effects of changes in variable trade costs on welfare. Through the lens of these results, we interpret some of the empirical work on measured gains from trade. (JEL E21, E23, F11, F43)

JEL-codes: E21 E23 F11 F43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
Note: DOI: 10.1257/mac.20120008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (61)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/mac.20120008 (application/pdf)
http://www.aeaweb.org/aej/mac/data/0702/2012-0008_data.zip (application/zip)
http://www.aeaweb.org/aej/mac/ds/0702/2012-0008_ds.zip (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Measured Aggregate Gains from International Trade (2012)
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:aejmac:v:7:y:2015:i:2:p:181-218

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

Access Statistics for this article

American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics is currently edited by Simon Gilchrist

More articles in American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().