An Elementary Theory of Global Supply Chains

This article develops an elementary theory of global supply chains. We consider a world economy with an arbitrary number of countries, one factor of production, a continuum of intermediate goods and one final good. Production of the final good is sequential and subject to mistakes. In the unique fre...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Costinot, Arnaud, Wang, Su, Vogel, Jonathan
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: Oxford University Press 2013
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/82665
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2240-0860
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5503-297X
Description
Summary:This article develops an elementary theory of global supply chains. We consider a world economy with an arbitrary number of countries, one factor of production, a continuum of intermediate goods and one final good. Production of the final good is sequential and subject to mistakes. In the unique free trade equilibrium, countries with lower probabilities of making mistakes at all stages specialize in later stages of production. Using this simple theoretical framework, we offer a first look at how vertical specialization shapes the interdependence of nations.