Journal Article
Vertical specialization and the changing nature of world trade
Hummels, David L.; Rapoport, Dana; Yi, Kei-Mu (1998-06)
A major feature of globalization has been the enormous increase in international flows of goods and services: countries are now trading much more with each other. In this article, the authors demonstrate the greater role vertical specialization is playing in these increased flows. Vertical specialization occurs when a country uses imported intermediate parts to create a good it later exports--that is, the country links sequentially with other countries to produce a final good. Deriving evidence from four case studies as well as OECD input-output tables, the authors reveal that vertical ...
Economic Policy Review , Volume 4 , Issue Jun , Pages 79-99

Conference Paper
International pricing in a generalized model of ideal variety
Lugovskyy, Volodymyr; Hummels, David L. (2008)
Proceedings

Report
The nature and growth of vertical specialization in world trade
Hummels, David L.; Yi, Kei-Mu; Ishii, Jun (1999)
Dramatic changes are occurring in the nature of international trade. Production processes increasingly involve a sequential, vertical trading chain stretching across many countries, with each country specializing in particular stages of a good's production sequence. We document a key aspect of these vertical linkages--the use of imported inputs in producing goods that are exported -- which we call vertical specialization. Using input-output tables from the OECD and emerging market countries we estimate that vertical specialization accounts for up to 30 percent of world exports, and has grown ...
Staff Reports , Paper 72