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Granular Comparative Advantage

Author

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  • Cecile Gaubert
  • Oleg Itskhoki
Abstract
Large firms play a pivotal role in international trade, shaping the export patterns of countries. We propose and quantify a granular multi-sector model of trade, which combines fundamental comparative advantage across sectors with granular comparative advantage embodied in outstanding individual firms. We develop an SMM-based estimation procedure, which takes full account of the general equilibrium of the model, to jointly estimate these fundamental and granular forces using French micro-data with information on firm domestic and export sales across manufacturing industries. We find that granularity accounts for about 20% of the variation in realized export intensity across sectors, and is more pronounced in the most export-intensive sectors. In turn, idiosyncratic firm dynamics accounts for a large share of the evolution of a country's comparative advantage over time. Governments face strong incentives to target trade policy at large individual foreign exporters, and to use lenient antitrust regulation at home to substitute for beggar-thy-neighbor trade policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Cecile Gaubert & Oleg Itskhoki, 2018. "Granular Comparative Advantage," NBER Working Papers 24807, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24807
    Note: EFG IFM IO ITI
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    JEL classification:

    • D20 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - General
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • F40 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - General

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