Essays in international trade : comparative advantage, market power, and regional divergence
(2023)
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- Authors
- Supervisors
- Vannoorenberghe, Gonzague
- Abstract
- Locations all over the world have become increasingly interconnected. Exposure to global markets provides crucial challenges for all the actors involved and policymakers seeking to fix economic distortions. This thesis studies the role of international trade in shaping the performances of countries, regions, and industries by focusing on three separate research questions in international economics. The first chapter studies the role of sector-level economies of scale as a source of a country's comparative advantage. Through the lenses of a general equilibrium trade model, it is shown that increments in the sheer size of industrial production improve a country's export capability. This finding suggests that large international shocks have the potential to generate long-lasting losses, providing a rationale for active industrial policy. The second chapter studies the impact of international competition on firms' market power. Focusing on Belgian manufacturing, the study suggests that industries relatively more exposed to competition from China experienced an increase in the aggregate markup. The effect is driven by the gains in market shares of those firms surviving the competition shock. This result suggests the possibility of anti-competitive effects from trade liberalization. The third chapter explores the importance of spatial linkages for the propagation of economic shocks and their role in explaining the urban-rural divide in France. Three new stylized facts are documented concerning the role of large urban areas as an engine of employment growth. A quantification exercise is provided to assess the key drivers shaping the evolution of employment across locations.
- Affiliations
Citations
Verdini, D. (2023). Essays in international trade : comparative advantage, market power, and regional divergence. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/25584