First chapter aims to quantify the role of trade in capital goods in
cross country income differences. I construct a multi-country general equilibrium
model of trade along the line of Eaton and Kortum (2002) and Alvarez
and Lucas (2007) and introduce trade in capital goods and capital accumulation.
In this framework, comparative advantage and the costs of international
trade determine the pattern of production, specialization, and trade. I calibrate
the model for 53 countries by estimating trade barriers and calibrating
productivity parameters to match the bilateral trade data in 1996. The model
is used to analyze full trade liberalizations. I find that removing barriers on
investment goods accounts a large portion of reducing cross-country income
differences and welfare gain. Counterfactual exercises suggest that developing
countries gain relatively more than developed countries.
In the second chapter, I focus on the impact of free trade on exportimport
ratios in two different sectors. I employ a multi-country general equilibrium model of bilateral trade patterns along the line of Eaton and Kortum
(2002) and Alvarez and Lucas (2007). I calibrate the model for 20 countries
by estimating trade barriers and calibrating productivity parameters to match
the bilateral trade data in 1996. The model is used to analyze full trade liberalizations.
The impacts of free trade are predicted to be an increase in the
export-import ratios in the comparative advantage sector and a decline in the
comparative disadvantage sector, on average. In developing countries the average
percentage change in export-import ratios exceeds the average percentage
change in export-import ratios in developed countries.
Finally, in the third chapter, I focus on the intergenerational human
capital transmission. I develop and calibrate a theoretical model that considers
three mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of human capital:
(i) persistence in learning ability; (ii) parental investment in child’s human
capital; (iii) higher teaching productivity of parents with more human capital.
Within this framework, I find that (i) and (ii) plays important roles while (iii)
does not. In addition the model generates the documented fact that higherwage
parents spending more time teaching their children in spite of the higher
opportunity cost. I asses the role of nature and nurture effects in intergenerational
persistence of earnings and I find that nature accounts a large portion
of the intergenerational persistence in earnings. I also quantify the relative
importance of these mechanisms on wage inequality. / text
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UTEXAS/oai:repositories.lib.utexas.edu:2152/ETD-UT-2010-05-1103 |
| Date | 02 December 2010 |
| Creators | Cengiz, Gulfer |
| Source Sets | University of Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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