Explaining Import Variety and Quality: The Role of the Income Distribution / Yo Chul Choi, David Hummels, Chong Xiang.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Choi, Yo Chul.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Hummels, David.

Xiang, Chong.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w12531.

NBER working paper series no. w12531

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Explaining Import Variety and Quality

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2006.

Summary:

We examine a generalized version of Flam and Helpman’s (1987) model of vertical differentiation that maps cross-country differences in income distributions to variations in import variety and price distributions. The theoretical predictions are examined and confirmed using micro data on income from the Luxemburg Income Study for 30 countries over 20 years. The pairs of importers whose income distributions look more similar have more export partners in common and more similar import price distributions. Similarly, the importers whose income distributions look more like the world buy from more exporters and have import price distributions that look more like the world.

Notes:

Print version record

September 2006.