Why Has Unemployment Risen in the new South Africa? (2006)
Banerjee, Abhijit, Galliani, Sebastian, Levinsohn, James, McLaren, Zoe, Woolard, Ingrid
We document the rise in unemployment in South Africa since the transition in 1994. We describe the likely causes of this increase and analyze whether the increase in unemployment is due to structural...
Incomes in South Africa Since the Fall of Apartheid
Murray Leibbrandt, James Levinsohn, Justin McCrary
This paper examines changes in individual real incomes in South Africa between 1995 and 2000. We document substantial declines--on the order of 40%--in real incomes for both men and women. The brunt...
Steven Berry, James Levinsohn, Ariel Pakes
In this paper we provide an algorithm for estimating characteristic based demand models from alternative data sources, and apply it to new data on the market for passenger vehicles. We find that,...
Does Food Aid Harm the Poor? Household Evidence from Ethiopia
James Levinsohn, Margaret McMillan
This paper uses household-level data from Ethiopia to investigate the impact of food aid on the poor. We find that food aid in Ethiopia is "pro-poor." Our results indicate that (i) net buyers of...
Globalization and the Returns to Speaking English in South Africa
This paper takes a novel approach to trying to disentangle the impact of globalization on wages by focusing on changes in the return to speaking English, the international language of commerce, in...
International trade theory: The evidence
Leamer, Edward E., Levinsohn, James, G. M. Grossman, K. Rogoff
Fooling Ourselves: Evaluating the Globalization and Growth Debate
Juan Carlos Hallak, James Levinsohn
This paper evaluates how much of the economics profession has evaluated the evidence on the relationship between international trade and economic growth. The paper highlights the basic approaches to...
Analyzing the distributional impacts of economic crises is important and, unfortunately, an ever more pressing need. If policymakers are to intervene to help those most adversely impacted, then...
Measuring Aggregate Productivity Growth Using Plant-Level Data
We define productivity growth as the change in welfare that arises from additional output holding primary inputs constant. Using this traditional growth-accounting definition, we show that gains may...
Automobile Prices in Market Equilibrium: Part I and II
Steven Berry, James Levinsohn, Ariel Pakes
This paper develops new techniques for empirically analyzing demand and supply in differentiated products markets and then applies these techniques to analyze equilibrium in the U.S. automobile...
Measuring Aggregate Productivity Growth Using Plant-Level Data
We define productivity growth as the change in welfare that arises from additional output holding primary inputs constant. Using this traditional growth-accounting definition, we show that gains may...
When Knowledge Is Not Enough: HIV/AIDS Information and Risky Behavior In Botswana
Taryn Dinkelman, James Levinsohn, Rolang Majelantle
The spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is still fueled by ignorance in many parts of the world. Filling in knowledge gaps, particularly between men and women, is considered key to preventing future...
Incomes in South Africa since the fall of Apartheid
Murray Leibbrandt, James Levinsohn, Justin McCrary
This paper examines changes in individual real incomes in South Africa between 1995 and 2000. We document substantial declines—on the order of 40%—in real incomes for both men and women. The...
Globalization and the Returns to Speaking English in South Africa
This paper takes a novel approach to trying to disentangle the impact of globalization on wages by focusing on how the return to speaking English, the international language of commerce, changed as...
Computational Analysis of the U.S FTAs with Central America, Australia, And Morocco
James Levinsohn, Margaret McMillan
This paper uses household-level data from Ethiopia to investigate the impact of food aid on the poor. We find that food aid in Ethiopia is "pro-poor." Our results indicate that (i) net buyers of...
Merger Policies and Trade Liberalisation.
Horn, Henrik, Levinsohn, James
This paper is about the interactions between trade policy and a narrow but important aspect of competition policy, namely merger policy. We focus on links between merger policies and trade...
Analyzing the distributional impacts of economic crises is important and, unfortunately, an ever more pressing need. If policymakers are to intervene to help those most adversely impacted, then...
SAVINGS, INSURANCE AND DEBT OVER THE POST-APARTHEID PERIOD: A REVIEW OF RECENT RESEARCH
CALLY ARDINGTON, DAVID LAM, MURRAY LEIBBRANDT, JAMES LEVINSOHN
Fooling Ourselves: Evaluating the Globalization and Growth Debate
Juan Carlos Hallak, James Levinsohn
This paper evaluates how much of the economics profession has evaluated the evidence on the relationship between international trade and economic growth. The paper highlights the basic approaches to...
Estimating Production Functions Using Inputs to Control for Unobservables
We add to the methods for conditioning out serially correlated unobserved shocks to the production technology. We build on ideas first developed in Olley and Pakes (1996). They show how to use...
Automobile Prices in Market Equilibrium.
Berry, Steven, Levinsohn, James, Pakes, Ariel
This paper develops techniques for empirically analyzing demand and supply in differentiated product markets and then applies these techniques to the U.S. automobile industry. The authors' framework...
Voluntary Export Restraints on Automobiles: Evaluating a Trade Policy
Steven Berry, James Levinsohn, Ariel Pakes
The authors evaluate the voluntary export restraint that was initially placed on exports of automobiles from Japan in 1981. They evaluate the impact this policy had on U.S. consumer welfare, firm...
Monopolistic Competition and International Trade: Reconsidering the Evidence.
Hummels, David, Levinsohn, James
The authors test some propositions about international trade flows that are derived from models of monopolistic competition developed by Elhanan Helpman and Paul Krugman. The authors investigate...
Analyzing the distributional impacts of economic crises is an ever more pressing need. If policymakers are to intervene to help those most adversely affected, they need to identify those who have...
Production function estimation in Stata using inputs to control for unobservables
Amil Petrin, Brian P. Poi, James Levinsohn
A key issue in the estimation of production functions is the correlation between unobservable productivity shocks and input levels. Profit-maximizing firms respond to positive productivity shocks by...
Taxes, Tariffs, and The Global Corporation
In this paper we develop some simple models of optimal tax and tariff policy in the presence of global corporations that operate in an imperfectly competitive environment. The models emphasize two...
Testing the Imports-as-Market-Discipline Hypothesis
It has long been believed that international competition forces domestic firms to behave more competitively. I term this the imports-as--market-discipline hypothesis. I construct a simple static...
Monopolistic Competition and International Trade: Reconsidering the Evidence
David Hummels, James Levinsohn
In this paper, we test some propositions about international trade flows that are derived from a model of monopolistic competition developed by Elhanan Helpman. We investigate whether the volume of...
International Trade Theory: The Evidence
Edward E. Leamer, James Levinsohn
This paper provides a critical look at recent empirical work in international trade theory. The paper addresses the issue of why empirical work in international trade has perhaps not been as...
Competition Policy and International Trade
This paper presents a non-technical discussion of economic issues that arise due to links between competition (or anti-trust) policy and international trade. While recent advances in international...
Voluntary Export Restraints on Automobiles: Evaluating a Strategic TradePolicy
Steven Berry, James Levinsohn, Ariel Pakes
In May, 1981, a voluntary export restraint (VER) was placed on exports of automobiles from Japan to the United States. As trade policies go, this one was important. At about the same time, though to...
This paper tries to make sense of the recent trade dispute between the U.S. and Japan in autos and auto parts. The paper argues that there are structural differences between the way that the auto...
Firm Heterogeneity, Jobs, and International Trade: Evidence from Chile
This paper is about jobs and international trade. It is about what researchers can learn of the relationship between the two using firm-level data. It is about the particular experience of Chile...
Merger Policies and Trade Liberalization
This paper is about the interactions between what is traditionally considered trade policy and a narrow but important aspect of competition policy, namely merger policy. We focus on links between...
Steven Berry, James Levinsohn, Ariel Pakes
In this paper, we exploit new sources of cross-sectional data to estimate a detailed product-level demand system for new passenger vehicles. We use four data sources: on the characteristics of...
When Industries Become More Productive, Do Firms?
This paper investigates two explanations for why industries might become more productive over time. The first explanation, termed the real productivity case,' is one in which firms become more...
Impacts of the Indonesian Economic Crisis: Price Changes and the Poor
James Levinsohn, Steven Berry, Jed Friedman
The recent financial crisis in Indonesia has resulted in dramatic price increases. Using very recent data, we investigate whether these price increases have impacted the cost-of-living of poor...
Estimating Production Functions Using Inputs to Control for Unobservables
We introduce a new method for conditioning out serially correlated unobserved shocks to the production technology by building ideas first developed in Olley and Pakes (1996). Olley and Pakes show how...
Analyzing the distributional impacts of economic crises is important and, unfortunately, an ever more pressing need. If policymakers are to intervene to help those most adversely impacted, then...
Steven Berry, James Levinsohn, Ariel Pakes
In this paper, we consider how rich sources of information on consumer choice can help to identify demand parameters in a widely used class of differentiated products demand models. Most important,...