David E Weinstein
Biographic Data
| ID | 1455879 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David E Weinstein |
| GIVEN NAMES | David E |
| FAMILY NAME | Weinstein |
| SIGNATURE | WEINSTEIN D E |
| AFFILIATIONS | National Bureau of Economic Research |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6036-7558 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 49 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1972 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The Impact of Retail E-Commerce on Relative Prices and Consumer Welfare
This paper examines the impact of retail e-commerce on pricing behavior and welfare. Using Japanese data, we find that e-commerce lowered relative inflation rates for goods sold intensively online. We use long time series and historical catalog sales as an instrument for e-commerce sales intensity. The entry of e-commerce firms raised the rate of intercity price convergence in physical stores for goods sold intensively online, but not for other g…
The Impact of the 2018 Tariffs on Prices and Welfare
We examine conventional approaches to evaluating the economic impact of protectionist trade policies. We illustrate these conventional approaches by applying them to the tariffs introduced by the Trump administration during 2018. In the wake of this increase in trade protection, the United States experienced substantial increases in the prices of intermediates and final goods, dramatic changes to its supply-chain network, reductions in availabili…
Jewish Exiles and European Thought in the Shadow of the Third Reich: Baron, Popper, Strauss, Auerbach
Hans Baron, Karl Popper, Leo Strauss and Erich Auerbach were among the many German-speaking Jewish intellectuals who fled Continental Europe with the rise of Nazism in the 1930s. Their scholarship, though not normally considered together, is studied here to demonstrate how, despite their different disciplines and distinctive modes of working, they responded polemically in the guise of traditional scholarship to their shared trauma. For each, the …
Globalization, Markups, and US Welfare
This paper estimates the impact of globalization on markups, and the effect of changing markups on US welfare, in a monopolistic competition model. We work with symmetric translog preferences, which allow for endogenous markups and firm entry and exit, thereby changing product variety. We find that between 1992 and 2005, US import shares rose and US firms exited, leading to an implied fall in markups, while variety went up because of imports. US …
How Much Do Idiosyncratic Bank Shocks Affect Investment? Evidence from Matched Bank-Firm Loan Data
We show that supply-side financial shocks have a large impact on firms’ investment. We develop a new methodology to separate firm borrowing shocks from bank supply shocks using a vast sample of matched bank-firm lending data. We decompose aggregate loan movements in Japan for the period 1990–2010 into bank, firm, industry, and common shocks. The high degree of financial institution concentration means that individual banks are large relative to t…
Exports and Financial Shocks
A striking feature of many financial crises is the collapse of exports relative to output. This article examines whether deteriorations in bank health can help explain the large drops in exports relative to output. Our article is the first to establish a causal link between the health of banks providing trade finance and growth in a firm's exports relative to its domestic sales. We overcome measurement and endogeneity issues by using a unique dat…
The Role of Prices in Measuring the Poor's Living Standards
In this paper, we revisit two pieces of conventional wisdom in the current debate about poverty, paying close attention to the price data underlying these findings: that the poor pay more than households of higher income for the goods and services they purchase; and that poverty rates, at least as measured by the U.S. Census, have remained essentially flat since the late 1960s, raising questions about the success of the policies implemented to re…
A Search for Multiple Equilibria in Urban Industrial Structure
Theories featuring multiple equilibria are widespread across economics. Yet little empirical work has asked if multiple equilibria are features of real economies. We examine this in the context of the Allied bombing of Japanese cities and industries in World War II. We develop a new empirical test for multiple equilibria and apply it to data for 114 Japanese cities in eight manufacturing industries. The data provide no support for the existence o…
Globalization and the Gains From Variety
Since the seminal work of Krugman, product variety has played a central role in models of trade and growth. In spite ofthe general use oflove-of-variety models, there has been no systematic study of how the import of new varieties has contributed to national welfare gains in the United States. In this paper we show that the unmeasured growth in product variety from U. S. imports has been an important source of gains from trade over the last three…
Bones, Bombs, and Break Points: The Geography of Economic Activity
We consider the distribution of economic activity within a country in light of three leading theories—increasing returns, random growth, and locational fundamentals. To do so, we examine the distribution of regional population in Japan from the Stone Age to the modern era. We also consider the Allied bombing of Japanese cities in WWII as a shock to relative city sizes. Our results support a hybrid theory in which locational fundamentals establish…
Growth, Economies of Scale, and Targeting in Japan (1955-1990)
This paper explores the usage of various industrial policy tools in Japan. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, the authors find that a disproportionate amount of Japanese targeting occurred in low-growth sectors and sectors with decreasing returns to scale. In addition, they find no evidence that productivity was enhanced as a result of industrial policy measures. Copyright 1996 by MIT Press
The New Liberalism of L. T. Hobhouse and the Reenvisioning of Nineteenth-Century Utilitarianism
Social Desirability as Related to the Success-Failure Inventory
The Impact of the 2018 Tariffs on Prices and Welfare
We examine conventional approaches to evaluating the economic impact of protectionist trade policies. We illustrate these conventional approaches by applying them to the tariffs introduced by the Trump administration during 2018. In the wake of this increase in trade protection, the United States experienced substantial increases in the prices of intermediates and final goods, dramatic changes to its supply-chain network, reductions in availabili…
Globalization, Markups, and US Welfare
This paper estimates the impact of globalization on markups, and the effect of changing markups on US welfare, in a monopolistic competition model. We work with symmetric translog preferences, which allow for endogenous markups and firm entry and exit, thereby changing product variety. We find that between 1992 and 2005, US import shares rose and US firms exited, leading to an implied fall in markups, while variety went up because of imports. US …
How Much Do Idiosyncratic Bank Shocks Affect Investment? Evidence from Matched Bank-Firm Loan Data
We show that supply-side financial shocks have a large impact on firms’ investment. We develop a new methodology to separate firm borrowing shocks from bank supply shocks using a vast sample of matched bank-firm lending data. We decompose aggregate loan movements in Japan for the period 1990–2010 into bank, firm, industry, and common shocks. The high degree of financial institution concentration means that individual banks are large relative to t…
The Role of Prices in Measuring the Poor's Living Standards
In this paper, we revisit two pieces of conventional wisdom in the current debate about poverty, paying close attention to the price data underlying these findings: that the poor pay more than households of higher income for the goods and services they purchase; and that poverty rates, at least as measured by the U.S. Census, have remained essentially flat since the late 1960s, raising questions about the success of the policies implemented to re…
Social Desirability as Related to the Success-Failure Inventory
Growth, Economies of Scale, and Targeting in Japan (1955-1990)
This paper explores the usage of various industrial policy tools in Japan. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, the authors find that a disproportionate amount of Japanese targeting occurred in low-growth sectors and sectors with decreasing returns to scale. In addition, they find no evidence that productivity was enhanced as a result of industrial policy measures. Copyright 1996 by MIT Press
The New Liberalism of L. T. Hobhouse and the Reenvisioning of Nineteenth-Century Utilitarianism
Bones, Bombs, and Break Points: The Geography of Economic Activity
We consider the distribution of economic activity within a country in light of three leading theories—increasing returns, random growth, and locational fundamentals. To do so, we examine the distribution of regional population in Japan from the Stone Age to the modern era. We also consider the Allied bombing of Japanese cities in WWII as a shock to relative city sizes. Our results support a hybrid theory in which locational fundamentals establish…
Globalization and the Gains From Variety
Since the seminal work of Krugman, product variety has played a central role in models of trade and growth. In spite ofthe general use oflove-of-variety models, there has been no systematic study of how the import of new varieties has contributed to national welfare gains in the United States. In this paper we show that the unmeasured growth in product variety from U. S. imports has been an important source of gains from trade over the last three…
A Search for Multiple Equilibria in Urban Industrial Structure
Theories featuring multiple equilibria are widespread across economics. Yet little empirical work has asked if multiple equilibria are features of real economies. We examine this in the context of the Allied bombing of Japanese cities and industries in World War II. We develop a new empirical test for multiple equilibria and apply it to data for 114 Japanese cities in eight manufacturing industries. The data provide no support for the existence o…
The Role of Prices in Measuring the Poor's Living Standards
In this paper, we revisit two pieces of conventional wisdom in the current debate about poverty, paying close attention to the price data underlying these findings: that the poor pay more than households of higher income for the goods and services they purchase; and that poverty rates, at least as measured by the U.S. Census, have remained essentially flat since the late 1960s, raising questions about the success of the policies implemented to re…
Exports and Financial Shocks
A striking feature of many financial crises is the collapse of exports relative to output. This article examines whether deteriorations in bank health can help explain the large drops in exports relative to output. Our article is the first to establish a causal link between the health of banks providing trade finance and growth in a firm's exports relative to its domestic sales. We overcome measurement and endogeneity issues by using a unique dat…
Jewish Exiles and European Thought in the Shadow of the Third Reich: Baron, Popper, Strauss, Auerbach
Hans Baron, Karl Popper, Leo Strauss and Erich Auerbach were among the many German-speaking Jewish intellectuals who fled Continental Europe with the rise of Nazism in the 1930s. Their scholarship, though not normally considered together, is studied here to demonstrate how, despite their different disciplines and distinctive modes of working, they responded polemically in the guise of traditional scholarship to their shared trauma. For each, the …
Globalization, Markups, and US Welfare
This paper estimates the impact of globalization on markups, and the effect of changing markups on US welfare, in a monopolistic competition model. We work with symmetric translog preferences, which allow for endogenous markups and firm entry and exit, thereby changing product variety. We find that between 1992 and 2005, US import shares rose and US firms exited, leading to an implied fall in markups, while variety went up because of imports. US …
How Much Do Idiosyncratic Bank Shocks Affect Investment? Evidence from Matched Bank-Firm Loan Data
We show that supply-side financial shocks have a large impact on firms’ investment. We develop a new methodology to separate firm borrowing shocks from bank supply shocks using a vast sample of matched bank-firm lending data. We decompose aggregate loan movements in Japan for the period 1990–2010 into bank, firm, industry, and common shocks. The high degree of financial institution concentration means that individual banks are large relative to t…
The Impact of the 2018 Tariffs on Prices and Welfare
We examine conventional approaches to evaluating the economic impact of protectionist trade policies. We illustrate these conventional approaches by applying them to the tariffs introduced by the Trump administration during 2018. In the wake of this increase in trade protection, the United States experienced substantial increases in the prices of intermediates and final goods, dramatic changes to its supply-chain network, reductions in availabili…
The Impact of Retail E-Commerce on Relative Prices and Consumer Welfare
This paper examines the impact of retail e-commerce on pricing behavior and welfare. Using Japanese data, we find that e-commerce lowered relative inflation rates for goods sold intensively online. We use long time series and historical catalog sales as an instrument for e-commerce sales intensity. The entry of e-commerce firms raised the rate of intercity price convergence in physical stores for goods sold intensively online, but not for other g…
Economics (9 works) · Global trade and economics (5 works) · Market economy (4 works) · Business (3 works) · Economy (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Macroeconomics (3 works) · Monetary economics (3 works) · Political science (3 works) · Sociology (3 works)