Material for Trade Phd Students

Trade Job Market Papers

To provide an idea of the level on the job market, here are some of the outstanding trade job market papers from the last few years:
  • Bilal, Adrien (2020) "The Geography of Unemployment" Research Web Page (Theory and Empirics)

  • Van Patten, Diana (2020) "Multinationals, Monopsony, and Local Development: Evidence from the United Fruit Company" Research Web Page (Theory and Empirics)

  • Manelici, Isabel (2020) "The Effects of Joining Multinational Supply Chains: New Evidence from Firm-to-Firm Linkages," Quarterly Journal of Economics, forthcoming

  • Balboni, Clare (2019) "In Harm's Way: Infrastructure Investments and the Persistence of Coastial Cities", Research Web Page (Theory and Empirics)

  • Eckert, Fabian (2019) "Growing Apart: Tradable Services and the Fragmentation of the U.S. Economy," Research Web Page (Theory and Empirics)

  • de Gortari, Alonso (2019) "Disentangling Global Value Chains," Research Web Page (Theory and Empirics)

  • Borusyak, Kirill and Xavier Jaravel (2019) "The Distributional Effects of Trade: Theory and Evidence from the United States," Research Web Page (Theory and Empirics)

  • Startz, Meredith (2019) "The Value of Face-to-face: Search and Contracting Problems in Nigerian Trade,'' Research Web Page (Theory and Empirics)

  • Grant, Matthew (2020) "Why Special Economic Zones? Using Trade Policy to Discriminate Across Importers," American Economic Review, 110(5), 1540-71.

  • Adao, Rodrigo (2017) "Worker Heterogeneity, Wage Inequality, and International Trade: Theory and Evidence from Brazil," Research Web Page (Theory and Empirics)

  • Lim, Kevin (2017) "Firm-to-Firm Trade in Sticky Production Networks," Research Web Page (Theory and Empirics)

  • Nagy, David (2017) "City Location and Economic Development," Research Web Page (Theory and Empirics)

  • Reyes-Heroles, Ricardo (2017) "The Role of Trade Costs in the Surge of Trade Imbalances," Research Web Page (Theory and Empirics)

  • Traiberman, Sharon (2019) "Occupations and Import Competition: Evidence from Denmark," American Economic Review, 109(12), 4260-4301. (Theory and Empirics)

  • Juhasz, Reka (2018) "Temporary Protection and Technology Adoption: Evidence from the Napoleonic Blockade," American Economic Review, 108 (11), 3339-76. (Empirics)

  • Steinwender, Claudia (2017) "Information Frictions and the Law of One Price: 'When the States and the Kingdom became United'," American Economic Review, 108(3), 657-96. (Empirics)

  • Tintelnot, Felix (2017) "Global Production with Export Platforms," Quarterly Journal of Economics, 132(1), 157-209. (Theory and Empirics)

  • Dingel, Jonathan (2017) "The Determinants of Quality Specialization," Review of Economic Studies, 84(4), 1551-1582. (Theory and Empirics)

  • Hanlon, Walker (2015) "Necessity is the Mother of Invention: Input Supplies and Directed Technical Change," Econometrica, 83(1), 67-100. (Theory and Empirics)

  • Caliendo, L and F Parro (2015) "Estimates of the Trade and Welfare Effects of NAFTA," Review of Economic Studies, 82(1), 1-44. (Theory and Empirics)

  • Allen, Treb (2014) "Information Frictions in Trade," Econometrica, 82(6), 2041-2083. (Theory and Empirics)

  • Faber, Ben (2014) "Trade Liberalization, the Price of Quality, and Inequality: Evidence from Mexican Store Prices," Research Web Page (Theory and Empirics)

  • Dix-Carneiro, R (2014) "Trade Liberalization and Labor Market Dynamics," Econometrica, 82(3), 825-885. (Structural Estimation)

  • Falgelbaum, P (2012) "Labor Market Frictions, Firm Growth, and International Trade," Review of Economic Studies, 87(3), 1213-1260 (Theory and Empirics)

  • Morales, E, G Sheu and A Zahler (2019) "Gravity and Extended Gravity: Estimating a Structural Model of Export Entry," Review of Economic StudiesI>, 86(6), 2668-2712. (Theory and Empirics)

  • Dhingra, S (2012) "Trading Away Wide Brands for Cheap Brands," American Economic Review, 103(6), 2554-84. (Theory and Empirics)

  • Atkin, D (2012) "Trade, Tastes and Nutrition in India," American Economic Review, 103(5), 1629-1663. (Theory and Empirics)

  • Donaldson, D (2018) "Railroads of the Raj: Estimating the Economic Impact of Transportation Infrastructure", American Economic Review, 108(4-5), 899-934.

  • Itskhoki, O (2008) "Optimal Redistribution in an Open Economy", Princeton University, mimeograph Research Web Page (Theory)

  • Ossa, R (2011) "A New Trade Theory of GATT/WTO Negotiations", Journal of Political Economy, 119(1), 122-152. (Theory and Empirics)

  • Arkolakis, C (2010) "Market Access Costs and the New Consumers Margin in International Trade", Journal of Political Economy, 2010, 118 (6), 1151-1199. (Theory and Empirics)

  • Chaney, T (2008) "Distorted Gravity: the Intensive and Extensive Margins of International Trade," American Economic Review, 98(4), 2008. (Theory and Empirics)

  • Romalis, J (2004) "Factor Proportions and the Structure of Commodity Trade", The American Economic Review, 94(10), 67-97. (Theory and Empirics)

  • Antras, P (2003) "Firms, Contracts, and Trade Structure", Quarterly Journal of Economics, November, 1375-1418. (Theory)

  • Melitz, M (2003) "The Impact of Trade on Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity", Econometrica, 71, 1695-1725. (Theory)

  • Schott, P (2003) "One Size Fits All? Heckscher-Ohlin Specialization in Global Production", American Economic Review, 93(2), 686-708. (Emprical)

  • Pavcnik, N (2002) "Trade Liberalization, Exit, and Productivity Improvement: Evidence from Chilean Plants", Review of Economic Studies, 69(1), 245-76. (Empirical)

PhD Research Materials

PhD Ethics lecture on the transition to PhD research.

Phil Haile's notes on empirical work in economics.

Jonathan Dingel has this very good advice for new PhDs.

Here is some very useful advice from Jesse Shapiro and Matt Gentzkow about the organization of research projects.

A useful book on writing research papers is Varanya Chaubey's book The Little Book of Research Writing. A useful book on preparing presentations is Jonathan Schwabish's book Better Presentations: A Guide for Scholars, Researchers, and Wonks. Here are some useful slides about giving presentations from Rachael Meager at LSE. See also these tips for designing scientific figures for color-blind readers.

There is a useful MIT Press book called A Guide for the Young Economist: Writing and Speaking Effectively about Economics by William Thomson. See also Economical Writing by Deirdre N. McCloskey and The Craft of Research by W. C. Booth, G. C. Colomb and J. M. Williams. A good style guide for the English language is The Elements of Style by W. Strunk and E. B. White. See also The Economist Style Guide, The Economist Bookstore, 2001, and The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker, 2015.

Job Market Preparation

There is also an old adage about having to write a book twice. Once in order to work out what to say and twice in order to work out how to say it. Given that job market packs have to be sent out in November, this means that you should have a complete draft of a job market paper by the Summer of the year you intend to go on the market, so that you can spend September and October polishing the finer details of the analysis. In the year before you go on the job market, you should try to present your work at conferences such as Empirical Investigations in International Trade, Mid-West International Trade Meeting, Royal Economic Society Conference, European Economic Association, and European Trade Study Group. Try to get as much practice presenting your work and responding to comments as possible.

Trade Data

Sources of country-level data on international trade and protection are WITs, CEPII, and Gravity Data

Spanish trade transactions data are available here: Raw data Data Schema

Some useful sources of historical data:
Historical GIS Data
GB 1900 Data
UK Interwar Trade Data
Historical Data on European Regional GDP
Digitized New York City Record
TRADHIST Historical Bilateral Trade Data 1827-2014
RICARDO Historical Bilateral Trade Data 1800-1938
Measuring Worth
Economic History Databases
Global Price and Income History Group
Historical Statistics Portal
Global Financial Data
Oxford Latin American Historical Database
Digital South Asia Library
AHDS History
Historial Currency Data
Angus Maddison Historical Data

GIS

World Historical Gazeteer Pelagios
Mercator Project
Gazeteer England and Wales Place Names

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