Estimating cross-country differences in product quality
By: Juan Carlos Hallak, Peter K. Schott.
Contributors: Schott, Peter K.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series -- working paper 13807; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) -- working paper no. 13807.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Description: "We develop a method for decomposing countries' observed export prices into quality versus quality-adjusted-price components using information contained in their trade balances.  Holding observed export prices constant, countries with surpluses are inferred to offer higher quality than countries running deficits.  Our method accounts for variation in trade balances induced by horizontal and vertical differentiation.  We use our method to examine manufacturing product quality among the world's top exporters from 1989 to 2003.  We find that the initial quality gap between high- and low-income countries is smaller than their initial income gap, and that the former narrows considerably faster over time"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Title from PDF file as viewed on 6/13/2008.

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