Skip to main content
Queen's Logo
Sign In
Queen's Economics Department
The QED

My QED

Main navigation

  • Home
  • People
    • Graduate Students
      • PhD Students
      • MA Students
      • RPRD
      • Recent Graduates
    • Visitors
      • Weatherall Visitor
      • Public Lecture Visitor
      • Other Visitor
    • Faculty
      • Research Faculty
      • Adjunct & Teaching Faculty
      • Emeritus Faculty
      • Affiliated Faculty & Staff
      • Postdoctoral Fellow
      • Undergraduate Teaching Prize
    • Staff
    • Directory
  • Undergraduate
    • For Prospective Students
      • Why Study Economics at the QED?
      • Use Your Degree
      • Requirements
      • Contacts
      • FAQ
    • For Current Students
      • Department Information
      • University Information
      • Job Postings
      • Student Community
      • Undergraduate Department Newsletter
      • News
      • Prizes
      • Economics Awards and Bursaries
      • Events & Deadlines
    • Degrees & Programs of Study
      • Fourth Year
      • Major in Economics (ECON)
      • Major in Applied Economics (APEC)
      • Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPEC)
      • Minors & Medials
      • Details
      • Economics Degree Pathways
    • Courses
      • Course List
      • Timetable
      • Curriculum Maps
  • Graduate
    • MA
      • Prospective Students
      • Current Students
      • Awards & Prizes
      • Job Postings
    • PhD
      • Prospective Students
      • Current Students
      • Awards & Prizes
      • Job Postings
    • Executive Programs
    • Information
    • QED Dissertations
  • Courses
  • JDI
  • Research
    • Working Papers
      • How to submit QED Working Papers
      • JEL Classifications
      • Order QED Working Papers
      • Working Papers Available Online from Other Institutions
    • QED @ IDEAS
    • Workshops
      • Department Seminars Fall 2020 - Winter 2021
      • Departmental Seminar Summer 2022
      • Faculty PhD Working Group Fall 2022
      • Faculty PhD Working Group Fall 2023
      • Faculty PhD Working Group Fall 2024
      • Faculty PhD Working Group Winter 2024
      • Faculty PhD Working Group Winter 2025
      • Faculty Working Group Fall 2021
      • Faculty Working Group Winter 2022
      • Faculty-PhD Working Group Winter 2023
      • Macro Fall 2021
      • Macro Fall 2022
      • Macro Fall 2023
      • Macro Fall 2024
      • Macro Fall 2025
      • Macro Winter 2021
      • Macro Winter 2022
      • Macro Winter 2023
      • Macro Winter 2024
      • Macro Winter 2025
      • Macro Winter 2026
      • Micro Fall 2020
      • Micro Fall 2021
      • Micro Fall 2022
      • Micro Fall 2023
      • Micro Fall 2024
      • Micro Fall 2025
      • Micro Winter 2021
      • Micro Winter 2022
      • Micro Winter 2023
      • Micro Winter 2024
      • Micro Winter 2025
      • Micro Winter 2026
      • Quant Fall 2021
      • Quant Fall 2022
      • Quant Fall 2023
      • Quant Fall 2024
      • Quant Falll 2025
      • Quant Falll 2026
      • Quant Winder 2024
      • Quant Winter 2021
      • Quant Winter 2022
      • Quant Winter 2023
      • Quant Winter 2025
      • Smith Business Econ Fall 2020 - Winter 2021
      • Smith Business Econ Winter 2021
      • WG Fall 2020-Winter 2021
      • WG Winter 2021
      • Department Seminars
      • Faculty Working Group
      • Microeconomics Workshop
      • Short Courses
      • Macroeconomics Workshop
      • Quantitative Workshops
      • Business Economics
    • QRDC
      • QRDC Home
      • Canadian RDC Network
      • Econ 882
      • Stats Can RDC Site
      • QRDC Analyst
    • Research Areas
      • Econometrics and Quantitative Methods
      • Economic History, Law and Economics
      • Financial Economics
      • Industrial Organization
      • International Economics
      • Labour, Health, Education and Welfare
      • Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics
      • Microeconomics
      • Public and Development Economics
      • Urban, Environmental and Natural Resource Economics
    • Conferences
      • 2009 QED Frontiers of Macroeconomic
      • 2014 QED Frontiers of Macroeconomics
      • 2018 QED Frontiers of Macro
      • 2020 Financial Intermediation and Regulation Conference
      • 2020 QED Frontiers of Macroeconomics
      • 2021 Financial Intermediation and Regulation Conference
      • 2022 Financial Intermediation and Regulation Conference
      • 2023 Canadian Macroeconomic Study Group (CMSG) Meeting
      • 2023 QED Frontiers of Macroeconomics Workshop
      • 2024 QED Frontiers of Macroeconomics Workshop
      • 2025 QED Frontiers of Macroeconomics Workshop
      • Annual Financial Intermediation and Regulation Conference
      • Annual Financial Intermediation and Regulation Conference
      • Celebrating James MacKinnon Conference
      • QED Frontiers of Macroeconomics Workshop 2022
      • The Canadian Public Economics Group (CPEG) Annual Conference
      • WECAN Conference
      • WECAN Women Economists in Canada 2025
      • Financial Intermediation and Regulation Conference Series
      • QED Frontiers of Macroeconomics Conference
      • Other Conferences
    • Public Lectures
      • 2023: Dora Costa
      • 2023: Krishna Pendakur
      • 2024: David Card
      • Chancellor David Dodge Lecturership in Public Finance
      • Dirk Krueger - W.A. Edmund Clark Lecture
      • W. Edmund Clark Distinguished Lecture Series on Public Policy
      • W.A. Mackintosh Visiting Lecture in Economics
    • Prizes and Distinctions
      • Douglas D. Purvis Memorial Prize
      • The Dan Usher Prize for Excellence in Economic Research
  • Alumni
    • Newsletter
    • Giving
      • Frank Lewis Fund
    • Keep in Touch
      • Thank You
    • Events
  • About
    • Internal
      • Hardware Software & Data
      • Light Board Calendar
      • Report a Website Issue
      • Room Schedules
      • iCalendar
      • QED Website Notes
    • Department Organization
    • Employment Opportunities
    • Travel Information
    • History
      • Past QED Faculty
      • QED Builders
    • Courses
      • Course List
      • Timetable 2022-23
    • News
    • Events
  • Contact

Main navigation sub-pages

  • Working Papers
  • QED @ IDEAS
  • Workshops
  • QRDC
  • Research Areas
  • Conferences
  • Public Lectures
  • Prizes and Distinctions

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Research

Research

Pen and working paper image

Working Papers

Purvis-Hand Conference room plaque

Workshops

QRDC

QRDC

Economics Topics

Research Areas

Conference image

Conferences

Alan Auerbach Clark lecture image

Public Lectures

IRPP Book Cover

Prizes and Distinctions

Recent QED Working Papers

Previous Pause Next
#1529.
Christopher Cotton, Daniel Teeter
Breaking Down Canada’s Internal Trade Barriers

This paper provides an overview of Canada’s internal trade barriers that limit cross-province trade and competition. It summarizes the different types of barriers, how costly they are for consumers and the economy, recent efforts to reduce them, and why they persist. It then summarizes 22 reforms and investments that could be undertaken by Canadian provincial and federal governments to break down the barriers. The paper classifies these reforms into four categories and presents several strategies for incentivizing reform.

#1525.
Alex Chernoff, Allen Head, Beverly Lapham
Markups, Pass-Through, and Firm Heterogeneity with Sequentially Mixed Search

We study the determination of market power at the firm and industry levels when heterogeneous firms compete for sales to ex ante homogeneous buyers in a market with both directed and random search and free entry of firms that differ in productivity. Search and the distribution of productivity across active firms generate distributions of equilibrium prices and markups that we relate to variation in the elasticity of demand at the firm level. With directed search at the outset, a shock that raises the matching rate for buyers improves conditions for them and tends to lower markups. Random…

#1524.
Alper Arslan, Robert Clark, Qidi Hu
Auctions vs Negotiations under Corruption: Evidence from Land Sales in China

This study investigates whether corruption differentially affects contracting through auctions and negotiations. Using data on Chinese land-market transactions, where corruption is known to be present, we first show that, on average, it exerts similar effects on transactions carried out via auctions and negotiation. However, this finding masks important heterogeneity – auctions
featuring healthy competition are less affected by corruption, and significantly less so than negotiation. We then develop a simple model of bidding under the possibility of corruption that rationalizes our…

#1523.
Alex Chernoff, Allen Head, Beverly Lapham
Consumer Search, Productivity Heterogeneity, Prices, Markups, and Pass-through: Theory and Estimation

We develop and estimate a search model in which identical consumers trade with price-setting firms that differ in productivity. In the model, equilibrium distributions of both prices and markups are non-degenerate and continuous with a firm's price decreasing in its productivity. Variation in the markup across firms is more complicated and depends on both the search process and the distribution of productivity. The model parameters governing each of these are estimated using firm-level data on retail industries in Canada. We use the estimated model to characterize the qualitative and…

#1522.
Daniel Teeter
The Impact of Internal Trade Liberalizations on Plant Productivity and Markups

I estimate the effects of two Canadian internal trade liberalizations on plant-level productivity, markups, and exports. In particular, I examine the New West Partnership and Trade Agreement (NWPTA) and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), both of which sought to reduce or remove prohibitive, technical and administrative barriers to trade across provinces. Employing a control function approach, I use Canadian manufacturing data to estimate plant-level total factor productivity and markups for 2004-2012. Then, using difference-in-differences methods, I find that the NWPTA increased…

#1521.
Mehmet Nazif, Glenn Jenkins
Evaluation of the Economic Welfare Gains from Reducing Trade Administration Costs in Mercosur

This paper evaluates the potential welfare gains in the Mercosur region of South America as a benefit of improvement to the trade administrations. Improvements to border procedures and processes leading to border procedures can save billions of dollars for the region, create markets for exporters and…

#1520.
Justin Quinton, Glenn Jenkins, Godwin Olasehinde-Williams
How Do Household Coping Strategies Evolve with Increased Food Insecurity? An Examination of Nigeria’s Food Price Shock of 2015-2018

Faced with a significant devaluation of its currency and a surge in food prices, the Nigerian government prohibited the use of foreign currency for food imports. This essentially blocked the importation of numerous food items under the guise of stimulating domestic output of these staples. Consequently, food prices in Nigeria increased despite a global decline in food prices, and the incidence and severity of food insecurity escalated. This study examines the changes in the types and severity of coping mechanisms for food insecurity resulting from the food price shock caused by the oil…

#1519.
Nahim Bin Zahur, Lucy Xiaolu Wang
Procurement Institutions and Essential Drug Supply in Low and Middle-Income Countries

International procurement institutions play an important role in drug supply. We study price, delivery, and procurement lead time of drugs for major infectious diseases (antiretrovirals, antimalarials, antituberculosis, and antibiotics) in 106 developing countries from 2007-2017 across procurement institution types. We find that pooled procurement lowers prices: pooling internationally is most effective for small buyers and concentrated markets, while pooling within-country is most effective for large buyers and unconcentrated markets. Pooling can reduce delays, but at the cost of longer…

#1518.
Nahim Bin Zahur
Long-term contracts and efficiency in the liquefied natural gas industry

In many capital-intensive markets, sellers sign long-term contracts with buyers before committing to sunk cost investments. Ex-ante contracts mitigate the risk of under-investment arising from ex-post bargaining. However, contractual rigidities reduce the ability of firms to respond flexibly to demand shocks. This paper provides an empirical analysis of this trade-off, focusing on the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry, where long-term contracts account for over 70% of trade. I develop a model of contracting, investment and spot trade that incorporates bargaining frictions and…

All Working Papers

Events

There are currently no upcoming research events.

Department of Economics

Queen's University
Dunning Hall, Room 209
94 University Avenue
Kingston, Ontario
K7L 3N6

Phone (613) 533-2250
Fax (613) 533-6668
Email https://www.econ.queensu.ca/contact 

Queen's University

© 2025 Department of Economics, Queen's University. All Rights Reserved.

Footer

  • Sitemap
  • Web Privacy