Engel's Law in the Global Economy: Demand-induced Patterns of Structural Change, Innovation, and Trade

Kiminori Matsuyama

No 12387, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Endogenous demand composition across sectors due to nonhomothetic demand (Engel’s Law) affects i) sectoral compositions in employment and in value-added, ii) variations in innovation rates and in productivity change across sectors, iii) intersectoral patterns of trade across countries, and iv) migration of industries from rich to poor countries. This paper offers a unifying perspective on how economic growth and globalization affects the patterns of structural change, innovation and trade across countries and across sectors in the presence of Engel’s Law. To this end, we develop a two-country model of directed technological change with a continuum of sectors under nonhomothetic preferences, which is rich enough to capture all these effects as well as their interactions. Among the main messages is that globalization amplifies, instead of reducing, the power of endogenous domestic demand composition differences as a driver of structural change.

Keywords: Isoelastically nonhomothetic ces; Implicit (direct and indirect) additivity; The schmookler effect; The linder effect; Vernon’s product cycle hypothesis; Factor price convergence; Leapfrogging; Trade patterns reversal; Log-supermodularity; Monotone comparative statics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F62 F63 O11 O19 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ino, nep-int, nep-opm and nep-tid
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Journal Article: Engel's Law in the Global Economy: Demand‐Induced Patterns of Structural Change, Innovation, and Trade (2019)
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