Report

The home market, trade, and industrial structure

Abstract: Does national market size matter for industrial structure? This has been suggested by theoretical work on "home market" effects, as in Krugman (1980, 1995). In this paper, I show that what previously was regarded as an assumption of convenience ? transport costs only for the differentiated goods ? matters a great deal. In a focal case in which differentiated and homogeneous goods have identical transport costs, the home market effect disappears. The paper discusses available evidence on the relative trade costs for differentiated and homogeneous goods. No compelling argument is found that market size will matter for industrial structure.

Keywords: economic geography; home market; transport costs; industrial structure;

JEL Classification: F1; F12; O1; R1;

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Part of Series: Staff Reports

Publication Date: 1997-12-01

Number: 35

Note: For a published version of this report, see Donald R. Davis, "The Home Market, Trade, and Industrial Structure," American Economic Review 88, no. 5 (December 1998): 1264-76.