Essays on the distributional and welfare effects of international trade

Abstract

International trade brings welfare gains from specialization, but generates inequality because production factors differ across industries and firms. This dissertation consists of two chapters that study the impacts of international trade on inequality and welfare. The first chapter studies the impacts of international trade and technical change on the skill premium through structural change. The second chapter investigates the effects of international trade on welfare and the production structure when heterogeneous firms can adopt more specialized technologies.