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Déconstruction de la gravité: coûts du commerce et marges extensive et intensive .
Author(s) -
Lawless Martina
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
canadian journal of economics/revue canadienne d'économique
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.773
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1540-5982
pISSN - 0008-4085
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-5982.2010.01609.x
Subject(s) - margin (machine learning) , fixed cost , productivity , economics , gravity model of trade , work (physics) , international trade , econometrics , international economics , business , industrial organization , microeconomics , macroeconomics , computer science , engineering , mechanical engineering , machine learning
This paper uses data on US exports to decompose exports into the number of exporting firms (the extensive margin) and average export sales (the intensive margin). We show how a range of proxies for trade costs has different impacts on the two margins. Distance has a negative effect on both margins, but the magnitude is considerably larger for the extensive margin. Most of the variables capturing language, internal geography, infrastructure and import cost barriers work through the extensive margin. We show that these results are consistent with a Melitz‐style model of trade with heterogeneous firm productivity and fixed costs.