American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Can Multistage Production Explain the Home Bias in Trade?
American Economic Review
vol. 100,
no. 1, March 2010
(pp. 364–93)
Abstract
A large empirical literature finds that there is too little international trade and too much intranational trade to be rationalized by observed international trade costs, such as tariffs and transport costs. This paper investigates whether a model in which the nature of production can change in response to trade costs -- a framework with multistage production -- can better explain the home bias in trade. The calibrated model can explain about two-fifths of the Canada border effect, about two-and-one-half times that of a model with one production stage. The model also explains a significant fraction of Canada-US "back-and- forth," or vertical specialization, trade. (JEL F11, F13, F14)Citation
Yi, Kei-Mu. 2010. "Can Multistage Production Explain the Home Bias in Trade?" American Economic Review, 100 (1): 364–93. DOI: 10.1257/aer.100.1.364Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- F11 Neoclassical Models of Trade
- F13 Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
- F14 Country and Industry Studies of Trade