Essays on Trade, Specialization, and Development

Download or read book Essays on Trade, Specialization, and Development written by Kenan Bagci and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The thesis consists of three empirical essays on trade, specialization and development. The first chapter studies the impact of greater economic integration (namely monetary unions) on trade, specialization and location of firms. Cost reductions due to greater economic integration may have substantial impact on the firms and industries of the countries involved. When analyzing the relationship between trade and monetary union, existing studies concentrate mainly on the volume effects of monetary unions and ignore the potential restructuring in trade and production within and between the member countries. The first chapter takes the case of the Eurozone and tests several predictions identified on the behavior of firms and industries. In this framework, it studies the export behavior of small and medium sized enterprises, adjustments in specialization and concentration of export, and location of differentiated and high-tech industries. In all cases, it provides important empirical evidences and thus contributes to the literature.The next chapter focuses on a relatively rarely studied topic and investigates the association between crisis and trade. There are papers analyzing the impact of trade on crisis and few others studying the impact of crisis on the level of trade. Post-crisis developments, on the other hand, did not attract much attention and no persuasive link has yet been established on the effects of crises on trade. By placing particular emphasis on the nature of crises, this second essay attempts to fill this gap in the literature by providing the first evidence on the potential impacts of crises on trade structure. Welfare impacts of trade and trade liberalization is well documented in the literature. Recent empirical works highlight the importance of trade structure in economic development as well. The channels through which trade structure may improve economic performance are, however, widely ignored. Productivity growth is one of the salient channels contributing to better economic performance. Finally the last chapter scrutinizes the role of export diversification as a cost discovery process on productivity growth. There is again no study conducted in investigating the relationship between export diversification and productivity growth and by providing early evidence and thus contributes to the literature. Trade; specialization; monetary union; economic crises; export diversification; productivity growth