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Effects of International Trade Between Two-Factor Economies

Figure 4-8: Trade Leads to a Convergence of Relative PricesRelative price of cloth, PC/PF

Relative qualityof cloth, QC + Q*

C

QF + Q*F


• When Home and Foreign trade with each other, their relative prices converge. The relative price of cloth rises in Home and declines in Foreign.

– In Home, the rise in the relative price of cloth leads to a rise in the production of cloth and a decline in relative consumption, so Home becomes an exporter of cloth and an importer of food.

– Conversely, the decline in the relative price of cloth in Foreign leads it to become an importer of cloth and an exporter of food.



Trade and the Distribution of Income• Trade produces a convergence of relative prices.

• Changes in relative prices have strong effects on the relative earnings of labor and land in both countries:

– In Home, where the relative price of cloth rises:– Laborers are made better off and landowners are made worse off.

– In Foreign, where the relative price of cloth falls, the opposite happens:

– Laborers are made worse off and landowners are made better off.

• Owners of a country’s abundant factors gain from trade, but owners of a country’s scarce factors lose.

Note: Home-labor abundant/ foreign-land abundant



FF

CC

SS

Land-labor Ratio, T/L

Relativeprice ofcloth, PC/PF

Wage-rentalratio, w/r

(PC/PF)1 (TC/LC)2(TC/LC)1 (TF/LF)2(TF/LF)1

(w/r)2

(w/r)1

Increasing Increasing

A Model of a Two-Factor EconomyFigure 4-4: From Goods Prices to Input Choices

(PC/PF)2


Factor Price Equalization• In the absence of trade: labor would earn less in Home

than in Foreign, and land would earn more.

• Factor-Price Equalization Theorem:– International trade leads to complete equalization in the

relative and absolute returns to homogeneous factors across countries.

– It implies that international trade is a substitute for the international mobility of factors.



• Has international trade equalized the returns to homogeneous factors in different countries in the real world?

– Even casual observation clearly indicates that it has not. – Example: Wages are much higher for doctors, engineers,

technicians, mechanics and laborers in the United States and Germany than in Korea and Mexico.

– Under these circumstances, it is more realistic to say that international trade has reduced, rather than completely eliminated, the international difference in the returns to homogeneous factors.




Table 4-1: Comparative International Wage Rates (United States = 100)


• Three assumptions crucial to the prediction of factor price equalization are in reality untrue:

– Both countries produce both goods

– Both countries have the same technologies in production

– Both countries have the same prices of goods due to trade

• One thing the factor-price equalization theorem does not say is that international trade will eliminate or reduce international differences in per capita incomes.



Implications of the Tests• Empirical evidence on the Heckscher-Ohlin model has

led to the following conclusions:– It has been less successful at explaining the actual

pattern of international trade.

– It has been useful as a way to analyze the effects of trade on income distribution.

Empirical Evidence on the Heckscher-Ohlin Model


Summary

The owners of a country’s abundant factors gain from trade, but the owners of scarce factors lose.

In reality, complete factor price equalization is not observed because of wide differences in resources, barriers to trade, and international differences in technology.

Empirical evidence is mixed on the Heckscher-Ohlin model.• Most researchers do not believe that differences in

resources alone can explain the pattern of world trade or world factor prices.


Assumptions of the Heckscher-Ohlin model:• There are two countries (Home and Foreign) that have:

– Same tastes

– Same technology

– Different resources– Home has a higher ratio of labor to land than Foreign

does

• Each country has the same production structure of a two-factor economy.



Introduction

This chapter is focused on the following questions:• What are the effects of various trade policy

instruments?– Who will benefit and who will lose from these trade

policy instruments?

• What are the costs and benefits of protection?– Will the benefits outweigh the costs?

• What should a nation’s trade policy be?– For example, should the United States use a tariff or an

import quota to protect its automobile industry against competition from Japan and South Korea?


Classification of Commercial Policy Instruments

Introduction

Commercial Policy Instruments

Trade Contraction Trade Expansion

Tariff Export tax

Import quotaVoluntary

Export Restraint

(VER)

Import subsidyExport subsidy

Voluntary Import

Expansion (VIE)

Price Quantity Price Quantity


Basic Tariff Analysis

Tariffs can be classified as:• Specific tariffs

– Taxes that are levied as a fixed charge for each unit of goods imported

– Example: A specific tariff of $10 on each imported bicycle with an international price of $100 means that customs officials collect the fixed sum of $10.

• Ad valorem tariffs– Taxes that are levied as a fraction of the value of the

imported goods– Example: A 20% ad valorem tariff on bicycles generates a

$20 payment on each $100 imported bicycle.


• A compound duty (tariff) is a combination of an ad valorem and a specific tariff.

• Modern governments usually prefer to protect domestic industries through a variety of nontariff barriers, such as:

– Import quotas– Limit the quantity of imports

– Export restraints– Limit the quantity of exports

Basic Tariff Analysis

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