This paper develops and estimates a model of the U.S. automobile industry. On the demand side, a discrete choice model is adopted, which is estimated using micro data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey. The estimation results are used in conjunction with population weights to derive aggregate demand. On the supply side, the automobile industry is modeled as an oligopoly with product differentiation. Equilibrium is characterized by the first-order conditions of the profit-maximizing firms. The estimation results are used in counterfactual simulations to investigate two trade policy issues: the effects of the voluntary export restraint, and exchange rate pass-through.

This paper documents the variation in dealer discounts for new cars using transactions price data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey. Consumer-specific characteristics fail to explain dealer discounts, whereas model, market-specific, and purchase transaction variables (e.g., first-time purchase, trade-in, and financing through dealer) do explain them. The results contradict earlier findings of race and gender discrimination based on a controlled experiment. This contradiction is reconciled by examining the higher moments of the empirical discount distribution; while mean and median markups do not vary by race and gender, minority purchases are characterized by higher dispersion. This may rationalize the disparate treatment of minorities by dealers documented in the controlled experiment.

This paper documents the variation in dealer discounts for new cars using transactions price data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey. Consumer-specific characteristics fail to explain dealer discounts, whereas model, market-specific, and purchase transaction variables (e.g., first-time purchase, trade-in, and financing through dealer) do explain them. The results contradict earlier findings of race and gender discrimination based on a controlled experiment. This contradiction is reconciled by examining the higher moments of the empirical discount distribution; while mean and median markups do not vary by race and gender, minority purchases are characterized by higher dispersion. This may rationalize the disparate treatment of minorities by dealers documented in the controlled experiment.

The authors discuss recent empirical research on how globalization has affected income inequality in developing countries. They begin with a discussion of conceptual issues regarding the measurement of globalization and inequality. Next, they present empirical evidence on the evolution of globalization and inequality in several developing countries during the 1980s and 1990s. The authors then examine the channels through which globalization may have affected inequality, discussing theory and evidence in parallel. They conclude with directions for future research.

A Structural Approach to Explaining Incomplete Exchange-Rate Pass-Through and Pricing-to-Market by Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg and Rebecca Hellerstein. Published in volume 98, issue 2, pages 423-29 of American Economic Review, May 2008

The Grossman-Helpman "Protection for Sale" model, concerning the political economy of trade protection, yields clear predictions for the cross-sectional structure of import barriers. Our objective is to check whether the predictions of the Grossman-Helpman model are consistent with the data and, if the model finds support, to estimate its key structural parameters. We find that the pattern of protection in the United States in 1983 is broadly consistent with the predictions of the model. A surprising finding is that the weight of welfare in the government's objective function is many times larger than the weight of contributions.

We develop a framework for quantifying barriers to labor force participation (LFP) and entrepreneurship faced by women in India. We find substantial barriers to LFP, and higher costs of expanding businesses through hiring workers for women entrepreneurs. However, there is one area where female entrepreneurs have an advantage: the hiring of female workers. We show that this is not driven by the sectoral composition of female employment. Consistent with this pattern, policies promoting female entrepreneurship can significantly increase female LFP even without explicitly targeting female LFP. Counterfactual simulations indicate that removing all excess barriers faced by women entrepreneurs would substantially increase the fraction of female‐owned firms, female LFP, earnings, and generate substantial gains for the economy. These gains are due to higher LFP, higher real wages and profits, and reallocation: low productivity male‐owned firms previously sheltered from female competition are replaced by higher productivity female‐owned firms previously excluded from the economy.

What is the pathway to development in a world marked by rising economic nationalism and less international integration? This paper answers this question within a framework that emphasizes the role of demand‐side constraints on national development, which is identified with sustained poverty reduction. In this framework, development is linked to the adoption of an increasing returns to scale technology by imperfectly competitive firms that need to pay the fixed setup cost of switching to that technology. Sustained poverty reduction is measured as a continuous decline in the share of the population living below $1.90/day purchasing power parity in 2011 U.S. dollars over a five‐year period. This outcome is affected in a statistically significant and economically meaningful way by domestic market size, which is measured as a function of the income distribution, and international market size, which is measured as a function of legally‐binding provisions to international trade agreements, including the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the World Trade Organization, and 279 preferential trade agreements. Counterfactual estimates suggest that, in the absence of international integration, the average resident of a low‐ or lower‐middle‐income country does not live in a market large enough to experience sustained poverty reduction. Domestic redistribution targeted towards generating a larger middle class can partially compensate for the lack of an international market.