International Economics at Michigan State University
[Faculty][Selected publications][Research and teaching activities][Other groups at MSU]
At Michigan State research in international is conducted in
two broad areas, International Trade and International Finance. The scholars in these two groups frequently engage in joint
projects in a collegiate atmosphere. Below we describe the two
groups in detail.
Faculty
The International Trade group offers a rich array of scholars
with research agendas that address many of the major issues in that field
today. Carl Davidson, Steven Matusz and John (Jay) Wilson are senior
colleagues with records of scholarship that each span over 40 years.
Davidson and Matusz have been pioneers in the study of the impact of trade on
labor market outcomes in the presence of imperfect labor markets, while John
Wilson has been a major contributor to the literatures on taxation and
international factor mobility, including tax competition among governments, tax
havens, and the "brain drain" (or "brain gain") created by developing country
emigration. This senior group has had their contributions
appear in journals such as American Economic Review, Journal of Political
Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Econometrica and Review of
Economic Studies. Susan Zhu is a mid-career scholar with 20 years of
experience. Her research focuses on the impact of international
trade on wage inequality and worker mobility, and the effect of financial
constraints on firm export and supply chain participation. Her work has
appeared in outlets such as Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of
the European Economics Association, Journal of International Economics, Journal
of Development Economics and European Economic Review. The
group's junior member is Oren Ziv. His work focuses on empirical aspects
of urban economics, economic geography and international trade with a
particular interest in the location decisions of firms and how geographic
frictions affect market outcomes.
The International Finance group studies topics at the
intersection of international finance, macroeconomics, and trade. The group has
had its contributions appear in economics and finance journals such as the Journal
of Financial Economics, Journal of the European Economic Association,
Journal of Monetary Economics, Economic Journal and Journal of
International Economics. Qingqing Cao studies the macroeconomic impact of
multinational banks in order to determine their role in international shock
transmission and business cycle dynamics, and to better understand the
implications of banking regulation and macroprudential policies. Raoul
Minetti's research on international topics, in turn, focuses on two areas: the
interaction between finance and international trade (in various projects in
collaboration with international trade scholar Susan Zhu), and the impact of
credit markets and banking sectors on international business cycles.
All of our international economists are active in advising
doctoral students, with PhD placements including the University of Oregon,
University of Essex, Trinity University, the University of North Carolina at
Greensboro, Furman University, the OECD, the Bank of Italy, and the Korea Institute of Finance,
and the Korea Institute for Economic Policy. Below you
will find a list of recent publications and some other notable publications
from the past two decades, as well as links to the vitae of the members of the
group.
Recent Publications
John (Jay) Wilson, Local policy choice: Theory and empirics (with David R. Agrawal and William H. Hoyt),
Journal of Economic Literature, forthcoming.
Oren Ziv, Productivity, Place, and Plants (with Benjamin Schoefer),
Review of Economics and Statistics, forthcoming.
Oren Ziv, Firms and industry agglomeration (with Dominick Bartelme),
Journal of Urban Economics, 2022.
Raoul Minetti, Foreign banks, liquidity shocks, and credit stability (with Daniel Belton, Leonardo Gambacorta, and Sotirios Kokas),
Review of Corporate Finance Studies, 2022.
Qingqing Cao and Raoul Minetti, Recessions and recoveries: multinational banks in the business cycle (with Maria Pia Olivero and Giacomo Romanini),
Journal of Monetary Economics, 2021.
Carl Davidson, Steven Matusz, and Susan Zhu, Globalization, the jobs ladder and economic mobility (with Fredrik Heyman and Fredrik Sjöholm),
European Economic Review, 2020.
Raoul Minetti, Credit relationships in the great trade collapse: Micro Evidence from Europe (with Giovanni Ferri and Pierluigi Murro),
Journal of Financial Intermediation , 2019.
Raoul Minetti and Susan Zhu, Financial constraints, firms’ supply chains and internationalization (with Pierluigi Murro and Zeno Rotondi),
Journal of the European Economic Association, 2019.
John (Jay) Wilson, Tax competition with heterogeneous capital mobility (with Ilkay Yilmaz),
Frontiers of Economics in China, 2018.
John (Jay) Wilson, Free-trade agreements in a model of trade, migration, and politics (with Steeve Mongrain),
Journal of Economic Literature, 2018.
Raoul Minetti, Interbank markets and bank bailout policies amid a sovereign debt crisis (with Aeimit Lakdawala and Maria Pia Olivero),
Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control , 2018.
Carl Davidson, Steven Matusz, and Susan Zhu, Global engagement and the occupational structure of firms (with Fredrik Heyman and Fredrik Sjöholm),
European Economic Review, 2017.
Carl Davidson, Steven Matusz, and Susan Zhu, Global engagement, complex tasks, and the distribution of occupational employment (with Fredrik Heyman and Fredrik Sjöholm),
Review of International Economics, 2017.
Raoul Minetti and Chun (Susan) Zhu, Family firms, corporate governance, and export (with Pierluigi Murro),
Economica, 2015.
Chun (Susan) Zhu, Multinational price premium, (with Ying Ge and Huiwen Lai),
Journal of Development Economics, 2015.
John (Jay) Wilson, Competitive income taxation with migration,
Taxation and Migration, 2015.
John (Jay) Wilson, Tax competition in a federal setting,
Handbook of Multilevel Finance, 2015.
Carl Davidson, Steven Matusz, and Susan Zhu, Globalization and imperfect labor market sorting (with Fredrik Heyman and Fredrik Sjöholm),
Journal of International Economics, 2014.
Other Notable Publications
Raoul Minetti, Foreign banks and the dual effect of financial liberalization (with Leo Ferraris),
Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 2013.
Carl Davidson and Steven Matusz, Trade and labor markets,
Handbook of International Trade, 2012.
Carl Davidson and Steven Matusz, A behavioral model of unemployment, sociotropic concerns and the political economy of trade policy (with Douglas Nelson),
Economics and Politics, 2012.
Raoul Minetti and Susan Zhu, Credit constraints and firm export: Microeconomic evidence from Italy (with Pierluigi Murro and Zeno Rotondi),
Journal of International Economics, 2011.
John (Jay) Wilson, Brain drain taxes for non-benevolent governments,
Journal of Development Economics, 2011.
Chun (Susan) Zhu, The structure of factor conent predictions, (with Daniel Trefler),
Journal of International Economics, 2010.
John (Jay) Wilson, Why do most countries set high tax rates on capital? (with Nicolas Marceau and Steeve Mongrain),
Journal of International Economicis, 2010.
Carl Davidson and Steven Matusz, International trade with equilibrium unemployment,
Princeton University Press, 2010.
John (Jay) Wilson, Tax competition with parasitic tax havens (with Joel Slemrod),
Journal of Public Economicis, 2009.
Carl Davidson and Steven Matusz, Globalization and adjustment with imperfect labor markets (with Andrei Shevchenko),
Journal of International Economics, 2008.
John (Jay) Wilson, A voluntary brain drain tax,
Journal of Public Economicis, 2008.
Raoul Minetti, Foreign Lenders and the Real Sector (with Leo Ferraris),
Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 2007.
Chun (Susan) Zhu, Technology endowments, and the factor content of bilateral trade (with Huiwen Lai),
Journal of International Economics, 2007.
Carl Davidson and Steven Matusz, Can compensation save free trade? (with Douglas Nelson),
Journal of International Economics, 2007.
Raoul Minetti, International business cycles with domestic and foreign lenders (with Matteo Iacoviello),
Journal of Monetary Economics, 2006.
Carl Davidson and Steven Matusz, Trade liberalization and compensation,
International Economic Review, 2006.
Chun (Susan) Zhu, U.S. exports nd multinational production (with Huiwen Lai),
Review of Economics and Statistics, 2006.
Chun (Susan) Zhu, Trade and inequality in developing countries: A general equilibrium analysis, (with Daniel Trefler),
Journal of International Economics, 2005.
Carl Davidson and Steven Matusz, Trade, turnover, and tithing (with Christopher Magee),
Journal of International Economics, 2005.
John (Jay) Wilson, Decentralization and international tax competition (with Eckhard Janeba),
Journal of Public Economicis, 2005.
John (Jay) Wilson, Welfare-improving competition for mobile capital,
Journal of Urban Economicis, 2005.
John (Jay) Wilson, Capital tax competition: bane or boone? (with David Wildasin),
Journal of Public Economicis, 2004.
Research and teaching activities
Graduate courses
- EC840: International Trade Theory and Commercial Policy I
- EC841: Exchange Rates and Capital Flows
- EC843: Advanced Topics in International Trade
