Publications

This paper investigates the welfare gains due to Spanish imports of new varieties over the period 1988-2006 using the methodology proposed by Feenstra (1994) and Broda and Weinstein (2006). After calculating the elasticities of substitution of a large number of Spanish imported products, we estimate that the total welfare gain due to imports of new varieties in Spain is equal to 1.2% of GDP in 2006 (a very conservative estimate). Next we decompose the contribution of each country to the total welfare gain. By countries, China accounts for about 12% of the total gain, almost the same as the entire EU-15.