I examine the robustness of monetary equilibria in a random matching model where a more efficient mechanism for trade is available. Agents choose between two trading sectors: the search and the intermediated sector. In the former, trade partners arrive randomly and there is a trading externality. In the latter a costly matching technology provides deterministic double-coincidence matches. Multi...

The introduction of the euro generated substantial interest in the impact of currency unions (CUs) on trade flows. Initial estimates suggested a tripling of trade, which gave rise to a literature in search of “more reasonable” CU effects. Theoretical derivations of the gravity model highlight, however that the CU literature neglects to control simultaneously for general equilibrium effects (mul...

This paper seeks to establish empirically that institutions matter to financial markets. To this end, I look at the impact of five different regional trade agreements (RTAs) on a composite of four different financial instruments that account for default risk on sovereign debt in developing countries. As expected, some of the agreements have a stronger impact on default risk than others. Althoug...

This paper examines the relationship between intra-industry trade in intermediate products, pollution and increasing returns. We develop a two-country model in which production occurs in two stages, final and intermediate good production. Intermediate goods are produced under monopolistic competition and final good production exhibits increasing returns with respect to the number of varieties o...

‘Trade, not aid’ has long been a catchphrase in international development discourse. The logic underpinning this slogan is that trade and private investment may serve as substitutes for development assistance and may be preferable to aid both because they are more effective means of promoting development objectives and because they do not siphon off resources from public coffers. Using a datase...

In this paper, we use detailed trade and transactions data for the U.S. manufacturing sector to empirically analyze the direction and magnitude of the association between firm-level exposure to trade and the volatility of employment growth. We find that, relative to purely domestic firms, firms that only export and firms that both export and import are less volatile, whereas firms that only imp...

this paper tries to survey irans regional labor market disequilibrium within 1996-2000. according to the results there has been an increase in the amount of disequilibrium of irans national as well as regional labor markets. incomplete labor market information on vacant job opportunities in different regions of the country along with high costs of migration have been the major causes of unemplo...

The Africa Economic Research Consortium (AERC) hosted the third in the series of Workshops between January 31 – February 1, 2007; in Nairobi, Kenya. The partners Africa’s Development Bank (AFDB), Joint Africa Institute (JAI), United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), New Economic Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) and the World Bank provided assistance with logistical arra...

Contributing to the literature on local bias, we examine how the direct and indirect network ties of financial intermediaries mitigate two types of information problems, the identification of investment opportunities and the evaluation of their quality. In our analysis of the non-domestic IPOs and trade sales exits of European venture capitalbacked companies, we find that direct and indirect ne...