Time Zones, Outsourcing and Patterns of International Trade

This paper proposes a three-country model of business services trade that captures the role of time zones in the division of labor. The connectivity of business service sectors via communications networks (e.g., the Internet) is found to determine the structure of comparative advantage. That is, two countries with connected service sectors have a comparative advantage in the good that requires business services. It is also shown that the third country inevitably specializes in the good that does not require business services.

A Simple Model of Foreign Brand Penetration under Monopolistic Competition

The main purpose of this study is to illustrate, with a simple monopolistic competition trade model, how trade liberalization (i.e., a decline in trade costs) can affect domestic entrepreneurs' decisions between domestic brands and foreign brands, and thus the degree of foreign brand penetration. It is shown that, as trade costs decrease, more entrepreneurs choose to provide foreign brands. However, the impact of trade liberalization (in terms of changes in profitt levels) becomes smaller as more entrepreneurs switch to foreign brands.Foreign brand penetration, trade liberalization, monopolistic competition

Footloose Capital and the Locational Advantage of a Hub

The purpose of this study is to illustrate, with a simple three-region (located on a line), two-good (homogeneous good/differentiated high-tech products), two-factor (labor/"footloose" capital) model, how falling transport costs can affect firms' location decisions and trade structure. It is shown that the locational advantage of a central hub is magnified via firms'' location decisions.Footloose Capital Hub Transport Costs

Distribution Costs, International Trade and Industrial Location

The purpose of this study is to illustrate, with a simple two-country, two-good, two-factor model, how a technological/regulational improvement in one country's distribution sector can affect firms'' location decisions and the nature of the trading equilibrium. It is shown that, through improvements in distribution sector, one country might divert high-tech industries to another country.

A note on Chamberlinian-Ricardian trade patterns

Using a two-country model of monopolistic competition with cross-country technical heterogeneity, this note explores the determinants of comparative advantage. It is shown that trade patterns are determined by a technology index, and that autarky relative prices do not serve as reliable predictors of trade patterns.Monopolistic competition technical heterogeneity trade patterns

Network Externalities and Comparative Advantage

In this article I examine how the network externalities of communications activities and trading opportunities interact to determine the structure of comparative advantage. These interactions are examined by constructing a two-country, three-sector model of trade involving a country-specific communications network sector. The role of the connectivity of network providers, which allows users of a network to communicate with users of another network, is also explored.Network Externalities; Comparative Advantage

Switching costs and the impact of trade liberalization

This paper considers a two-period model of market entry with horizontally differentiated products and switching costs. Conditions that are conducive to a competitive environment in the second period are shown to yield a less competitive outcome in the first period. That is, when the marginal cost of a foreign entrant is relatively low, the first-period output of a domestic monopolist is relatively low as well.cost competitiveness

The Dixit-Stiglitz-Krugman Trade Model: A Geometric Note

In this note, we briefly review the now standard Dixit-Stiglitz-Krugman trade model of monopolistic competition. Furthermore, we propose a convincing graphical exposition that emphasizes the firms' entry-exit process.

Footloose Capital and Locational Advantage of a Hub

The purpose of this study is to illustrate, with a simple three-region (located on a line), two-good (homogeneous good/differentiated high-tech products), two-factor (labor/``footloose'' capital) model, how falling transport costs can affect firms' location decisions and trade structure. It is shown that the locational advantage of a central hub is magnified via firms' location decisions.

Relativistic Collective Coordinate Quantization of Solitons: Spinning Skyrmion

We develop a consistent relativistic generalization of collective coordinate quantization of field theory solitons. Our principle of introducing collective coordinates is that the equations of motion of the collective coordinates ensure those of the original field theory. We illustrate this principle with the quantization of spinning degrees of freedom of Skyrmion representing baryons. We calculate the leading relativistic corrections to the static properties of nucleons, and find that the corrections are non-negligible ones of 10% to 20%.Comment: 6 pages, no figures, REVTeX; appendix added, published in PR