A Theory of North-South Trade and Globalization

Abstract

This paper develops a dynamic general equilibrium model of North-South trade. Northern firms devote resources to innovative R&D to discover higher quality products and Southern firms devote resources to imitative R&D to copy state-of-the-art quality products. Both innovation and imitation rates are endogenously determined as well as the degree of wage inequality between Northern and Southern workers. The steady-state effects of globalization and stronger protection of intellectual property are analyzedEconomic Growth, North-South Trade, Globalization