Trade, Growth and Product Quality

In collaboration with:

Objectives

The last wave of globalization has reshaped international trade and the world economy. Today more than ever, a country’s growth depends on the capacity to build and maintain a strong competitive advantage in international markets. Global value chains have intertwined the production processes of developed and developing economies with an unprecedented depth. Emerging economies have turned into large exporters of industrial goods whose destination markets are developing as well as developed countries. Specialization along the quality dimension has become a central feature of international trade and is helping rich countries to cope with increasingly tough competition from low-wage countries. Nonetheless, some developing countries are catching up along this quality dimension, thereby raising questions about how developed economies will be able to maintain a competitive edge in the long run. The Great Recession provoked the largest fall in international trade in recent history and made clear that the high speed at which all of these structural changes took place has come at the cost of important macroeconomic disequilibria.

This workshop will provide a forum for discussing some of the latest research on these issues. The papers to be presented approach these issues from complementary points of view: new databases, measurement, theoretical models and empirical testing.

Programme

First session: 9:30-11:00

“International Prices and Endogenous Quality”
John Romalis, University of Sydney, (joint work with R. Feenstra)

“Export Sophistication Across and Within Sectors and Growth” (short paper/work in progress)
Pilar Chorén, Ivie

Coffee break: 11:00-11:30

Second session: 11:30-13:30

“Offshoring and the Shortening of the Quality Ladder: Evidence from Danish Apparel”
Frederic Warzynski, Aarhus Universitet, (joint work with Valerie Smeets and Sharon Traiberman)

“Specialization across Goods and Export Quality: Further Directions"
Francisco Alcalá, Universidad de Murcia and Ivie

Third session: 15:15-16:15

“Love for Quality, Comparative Advantage, and Trade”
Vincenzo Merella, Università di Cagliari, (joint work with Esteban Jaimovich)

Coffee break: 16:15-16:30

Fourth session: 16:30-17:30

“Trade and the Great Recession”
Jonathan Eaton, Brown University, (joint work with Samuel Kortum, Brent Neiman, and John Romalis)

Coordinator

Francisco Alcalá, Universidad de Murcia and Ivie

Participants

Francisco Alcalá, Universidad de Murcia and Ivie
Pilar Chorén, Ivie
Jonathan Eaton, Brown University
Vincenzo Merella, Università di Cagliari
John Romalis, University of Sydney
Frederic Warzynski, Aarhus Universitet

Venue

Universitat de València
Facultat d'Economia
Departament d’Estructura Econòmica
(Economia Aplicada II)
4t pis - 4P18 - Aula Departament
Av. de los Naranjos s/n
46022 Valencia