| This thesis is about international trade and development. Although external factors are important in understanding the situation of current developing countries, internal factors also need to be considered seriously. For instance, the conflicting interests of the various groups comprising the society might be crucial in explaining why some countries remain trapped in poverty while others seem to be doing pretty well. Focusing on any of those sets of factors can yield rather different insights on development issues, while pointing to some conflicting solutions.; The first essay builds upon the idea that gains from trade come from a certain degree of specialization among trade partners and challenges the view that specialization in the case of an agriculture-based developing country might imply a higher reliance on low skill labor. This view often leads to consider trade as a step away from the much awaited structural transformation of the economy, which can only come with increases in agricultural productivity. In this first chapter, we suggest that it needs not be the case. We show that trade openness can in fact trigger the structural transformation of such an agrarian society. It can induce a higher reliance on human capital accumulation and produce the necessary productivity gains for an economy to pick up. Our dynamic general equilibrium model provides a clear illustration of the mechanics behind such structural transformation.; Obviously, for the above mechanics to come into play, the provision of education resources needs be sufficient, allowing for permanent human capital accumulation over time. However, poverty may limit the supply of these resources, increasing the contest over their allocation as every group claims a higher share of it.; In the second essay, we do explore the political determinants of societies' tolerance for social exclusion on the basis of ethnicity, religion, or race. We develop a political-economic model in order to understand the emergence of social exclusion even in presence of a democratic voting system. To the extent that population size is, at least initially, the only source of asymmetry between rival groups, our analysis suggests that the introduction of democratic voting may not be sufficient to save small, but visible, minorities from social exclusion. Only where this asymmetry is moderate, can the introduction of democratic voting suffice to avoid some groups being excluded from sharing in on public education resources.; The last chapter of the thesis deals with the issue of child trafficking, a thriving business that can be linked to economic globalization. The chapter highlights key economic characteristics of this business and shows that the fight against child trafficking is far from trivial. Our analysis suggests that supply-side policies have very limited effect unless preceded by attacks on the demand side. We work within a model of a source country to highlight the necessary ingredients of a successful international cooperation towards the elimination of child trafficking.; Keywords. Trade; Extension services; Development; Social Exclusion; Democracy; Child Trafficking; Cooperation... |
