the relationship between technology and international competitiveness dates back to the neo-technological trade theories of the 1960s. this approach considers difference in technology as the primary motive for difference among nations in terms of trade performance. the technology gap approach emphasizes inter-country differences in innovativeness as the basis for international trade flows. the ...

This paper aims to identify the main causes of recent trade flows in OECD countries. The specific features of the study include the explicit introduction of R&D and FDI as the two important explanatory variables, unit root tests in the panel data framework and careful treatment of endogeneity. The main findings are that the levels and similarities of market size, domestic R&D stock and inward F...

This paper has two main goals. The first is to study the links between the “new” economic theories, this is, the “new” trade theory, the “new” growth theory and the “new” economic geography. These are three apparently distinct strands of economics, yet they have a common motivation: the role of increasing returns and the consequent market structure (imperfect/monopolistic competition). The seco...

Trade theories covering Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) are as diverse as the literature in search of their empirical support. To account for the model uncertainty that surrounds the validity of the competing PTA theories, we introduce Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) to the PTA literature. BMA minimizes the sum of Type I and Type II error, the mean squared error, and generates predictive di...

This paper reviews the recent theoretical literature on heterogeneous firms and trade, which emphasizes firm selection into international markets and reallocations of resources across firms. We discuss the empirical challenges that motivated this research and its relationship to traditional trade theories. We examine the implications of firm heterogeneity for comparative advantage, market size,...