Productivity and Firm Selection: Quantifying the "New" Gains from Trade

Gregory Corcos, Massimo Del Gatto, Giordano Mion and Gianmarco Ottaviano

No 2, KITeS Working Papers from KITeS, Centre for Knowledge, Internationalization and Technology Studies, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy

Abstract: We discuss how standard computable equilibrium models of trade policy can be enriched with selection effects without missing other important channels of adjustment. This is achieved by estimating and simulating a partial equilibrium model that accounts for a number of real world effects of trade liberalisation: richer availability of product varieties; tougher competition and weaker market power of rms; better exploitation of economies of scale; and, of course, efficiency gains via the selection of the most efficient firms. The model is estimated on E.U. data and simulated in counterfactual scenarios that capture several dimensions of European integration. Simulations suggest that the gains from trade are much larger in the presence of selection effects. Even in a relatively integrated economy as the E.U., dismantling residual trade barriers would deliver relevant welfare gains stemming from lower production costs, smaller markups, lower prices, larger rm scale and richer product variety. We believe our analysis provides enough ground to support the inclusion of rm heterogeneity and selection effects in the standard toolkit of trade policy evaluation.

Keywords: European integration; firm-level data; firm selection; gains from trade; total factor productivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F12 R13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: pages 36
Date: 2009-03, Revised 2009-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cmp, nep-eff and nep-int
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Productivity and Firm Selection: Quantifying the ‘New’ Gains from Trade (2012)
Working Paper: Productivity and firm selection: quantifying the ‘new’ gains from trade (2011)
Working Paper: Productivity and Firm Selection: Quantifying the "New" Gains from Trade (2009)
Working Paper: Productivity and firm selection: quantifying the "new" gains from trade (2009)
Working Paper: Productivity and Firm Selection: Quantifying the “New” Gains from Trade (2009)
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