Relative Factor Endowments Research Articles

Openness, inequality and poverty: Endowments matter

Using tariffs as a measure of openness, this paper finds consistent evidence that the conditional effects of trade liberalization on inequality are correlated with relative factor endowments. Trade liberalization, measured by changes in tariff revenues, is associated with increases in inequality in countries well-endowed with highly skilled workers and capital or with workers that have very low education levels. Similar, although less robust, results are also obtained when decile data are used instead of the usual Gini coefficients. Taken together, the results are strongly supportive of the factor-proportions theory of trade and suggest that trade liberalization in poor countries where the share of the labor force with little education is high raises inequality. Simulation results also suggest that relatively small changes in inequality as measured by aggregate measures of inequality, like the Gini coefficient, are magnified when estimates are carried out using decile data.

The Uneven Pace of Deindustrialisation in the OECD

AbstractThroughout the OECD, the period since the 1970s saw a secular decline in manufacturing's share of GDP and a secular rise in the share of services. Despite this being a central feature of growth, the economic forces behind deindustrialisation and the reasons why its pace varied so markedly across OECD countries are not well understood. Adopting an econometric approach founded in neoclassical production theory, we provide an empirical analysis of the role of changes in relative prices, technology and factor endowments in driving changes in production structure. The speed of adjustment to changes in these determinants of production structure varies across OECD countries and is correlated with levels of employment protection.

The Rise of China and India and the Commodity Boom: Economic and Environmental Implications for Low-Income Countries

The rapid growth of China and, more recently, of India, is having major effects on every facet of the global economy. The supply of labor-intensive manufactured exports (from China in particular) has been accompanied by a huge expansion in their imports both of raw materials and of skill-intensive manufactured parts and components. This ‘offshoring’ of intermediates production by large, labor-abundant economies has economic and environmental implications for other developing economies drawn into their trade networks. We sketch a trade-theoretic model showing how the growth of the ‘giants’ generates adjustment pressures on their trading partners and competitors among developing economies. We discuss in particular how differences in relative factor endowments of resource-rich economies can produce quite different outcomes in the context of product fragmentation and expanding commodity trade. We also explore the effects on production, trade, environment and prospects for future growth, recognizing that commodity extraction and production can have strong environmental impacts, particularly in the context of weak institutions and other market failures. We illustrate these different impacts by considering the cases of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand and highlight implications for growth, development and policy.

The rise of China and India and the commodity boom : economics and environmental implications for low-income countries

The rapid growth of China and, more recently, of India, is having major effects on every facet of the global economy. The supply of labor-intensive manufactured exports (from China in particular) has been accompanied by a huge expansion in their imports both of raw materials and of skill-intensive manufactured parts and components. This 'offshoring' of intermediates production by large, labor-abundant economies has economic and environmental implications for other developing economies drawn into their trade networks. We sketch a trade-theoretic model showing how the growth of the 'giants' generates adjustment pressures on their trading partners and competitors among developing economies. We discuss in particular how differences in relative factor endowments of resource-rich economies can produce quite different outcomes in the context of product fragmentation and expanding commodity trade. We also explore the effects on production, trade, environment and prospects for future growth, recognizing that commodity extraction and production can have strong environmental impacts, particularly in the context of weak institutions and other market failures. We illustrate these different impacts by considering the cases of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand and highlight implications for growth, development and policy.

International Specialization and Labor Unions: Evidence from Oecd Countries

The aim of this paper is to explore the role of institutional determinants of international comparative advantage. Starting from a theoretically well founded general equilibrium framework, where specialization depends on relative factor endowments and technological differences, we study the possible additional effect of labor unions. Using country-year panel data, we obtain that they are an important determinant of relative economic performance for a sample of manufacturing sectors. In particular low wages-labor intensive industries turn out to be relatively disadvantaged, while high wages-capital intensive sectors are relatively advantaged by stronger labor unions. We also allow for different institutional scenarios, letting unionization patterns interact with different regimes of bargaining coordination and social security systems. Our main conclusions are not substantially altered.

: (On the Determinants of Intra-Industry Trade: Specialization and Relative Factor Endowments)

Korean Abstract: 산업내무역 지수는 특화지수의 감소함수이고 중력계수의 증가함수라는 정리 1의 수학적 관계는 통계자료에서 지지된다. 특히 산업내무역 지수와 특화지수 간에 존재하는 음의 상관관계는 매우 강건하게 성립한다. 또한 2 재화 2요소 모형에서는 산업내무역이 교역국의 요소부존비율의 차이의 감소함수이고 일인당 GDP의 곱의 증가함수라는 정리 2의 결과를 통계적으로 확인해 보았다. 산업내무역과 요소부존비율 차이와의 음의 상관관계는 OLS 모형에서는 잘 성립하지만 고정효과 모형에서는 소멸되는 것이 확인되었다. 그러나 일인당 GDP의 곱은 두 모형에서 모두 산업내무역에 강건한 양의 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다.그러나 무엇보다도 중요한 결과는 요소부존도의 차이가 산업내무역에 미치는 음의 영향을 독점적 경쟁 모형을 지지하는 증거로 해석해서는 안 된다는 것이다. 이는 독점적 경쟁 모형을 포함한 수많은 모형에서 성립하는 회계적 관계이기 때문이다. English Abstract: This paper derives a general relationship among intra-industry trade, specialization, and gravity. This relationship holds in any two-country trade model under assumptions that are frequently adopted in theoretical trade models. Using this general relationship, we can take an integrated approach to the theory of intra-industry trade. In two-good, two-factor models, this relationship implies that the intensity of intra-industry trade is decreasing in the difference in factor proportions and is increasing in the product of per-worker GDPs. Thus, the popular assertion that a negative correlation between the intensity of intra-industry trade and the difference in factor proportions supports monopolistic competition is groundless. Using panel data on bilateral trade flows, we estimate these relationships. We find that the negative correlation between intra-industry trade and specialization is quite robust. We also find a robust positive correlation between intra-industry trade and the product of per-capita GDPs.

On the Determinants of Intra-industry Trade: Specialization and Relative Factor Endowments

This paper derives a general relationship among intra-industry trade, specialization, and gravity. This relationship holds in any two-country trade model under assumptions that are frequently adopted in theoretical trade models. Using this general relationship, we can take an integrated approach to the theory of intra-industry trade. In two-good, two-factor models, this relationship implies that the intensity of intra-industry trade is decreasing in the difference in factor proportions and is increasing in the product of per-worker GDPs. Thus, the popular assertion that a negative correlation between the intensity of intra- industry trade and the difference in factor proportions supports monopolistic competition is groundless. Using panel data on bilateral trade flows, we estimate these relationships. We find that the negative correlation between intra-industry trade and specialization is quite robust. We also find a robust positive correlation between intra-industry trade and the product of per-capita GDPs.

On Some Effects of International Fragmentation of Production on Comparative Advantages, Trade Flows and the Income of Countries

In traditional trade models, whether based on technological differences or on relative factor endowments, merchandise composition and directions of trade are derived from closed‐economy conditions. But nowadays one of the basic assumptions of traditional trade models, i.e. that production processes are integrated within just one country, is being increasingly violated as previously integrated productive activities are segmented and spread over an international network of production sites: as a result, an increasingly large share of trade flows is made up of intermediate and unfinished goods being transferred from one country to another in order to be processed. In this paper we submit that such new configuration of production processes has important effects on at least three dimensions of economic research. First, we show that international disintegration of production processes leads to a lessening of the power of comparative advantages when it comes to explaining both merchandise composition and directions of trade, while it is the concept of absolute advantage to become increasingly relevant; second, we show that empirical measures of revealed comparative advantages are inherently misleading if they do not account for differences in the stage‐of‐processing of traded goods; third, we estimate a simple model of aggregate demand accounting for international trade in intermediates: results of estimation lend support to our prior that participation of a country in the process of international fragmentation of production plays a specific and significant role in determining its year‐over‐year change in GDP.

Bilateral versus Multilateral Trade and Investment Liberalisation

To assess the welfare effects of bilateral versus multilateral trade and/or investment liberalisation in general equilibrium, we set up a three‐country and three‐factor knowledge‐capital model of trade and multinational activity. Numerical simulation results indicate that multilateral liberalisation tends to dominate bilateral liberalisation in welfare terms. A transition economy tends to prefer bilateral over multilateral liberalisation to avoid plant relocation. For similar reasons, a developed country may prefer bilateral over multilateral liberalisation, if the other economies exhibit big relative factor endowment differences.

Trade in Western and Eastern Europe in the aftermath of COMECON: an assessment of behavioral change

In the early 1990s, leading economists have predicted huge unexhausted trade potentials associated with the political restraints under the COMECON regime. Besides the low Eastern per capita GDP figures associated with limited access to frontier technologies, the political regulation of West-East and also intra-East trade per se lead to discrepancies in the behavioral relationships. This paper addresses the question of whether changes in the determinants of trade such as market size and relative factor endowments or economic behavior (the different sensitivities of trade to its determinants) were responsible for these findings. Our empirical evidence from a large panel of bilateral European trade flows suggests that the conclusions differ sharply for East-West versus intra-East trade. Concerning East-West trade we observe pronounced convergence in behavior to intra-Western standards between the second and fourth considered phase of transition while for intra-East trade there is no such convergence in behavior. Copyright 2007, Oxford University Press.

Trade, Multinational Sales and FDI in a Three-Factors Model

The overwhelming importance of multinational activities as well as the coexistence of exporters and multinationals within the developed countries demand for theoretical models which provide a convincing explanation of simultaneous two-way trade and horizontal multinational activities. We present a model with three factors of production to disentangle the two-fold role of headquarters for their affiliates into a know-how (headquarters services) and a capital-serving part (FDI). We simulate the model to derive predictions about the impact of trade costs, plant set-up costs, fixed multinational network costs, relative country size and factor endowments on exports, multinational sales and FDI. The effects are not uniform for multinational sales and FDI. Whereas exports and affiliate sales increase with the similarity in country size, FDI is more likely to increase monotonously with the sending country's size.

Intraindustry Trade and Relative Factor Endowments

This article investigates the relationship between relative factor endowments and intraindustry trade shares in bilateral trade flows. While Helpman and Krugman's theoretical framework predicts a negative relationship, empirical studies often report contrary results. We, however, argue that previous empirical studies fail to provide an exact link between the theory and the data. New empirical evidence based on the estimating equation derived directly from the theoretical framework demonstrates that the theory finds support in the data once the sums of capital–labor ratios are controlled for.

Trade, Multinational Sales, and FDI in a Three-factor Model

The overwhelming importance of multinational activities as well as the coexistence of exporters and multinationals within the developed countries demand for theoretical models which provide a convincing explanation of simultaneous two-way trade and horizontal multinational activities. We present a model with three factors of production to disentangle the two-fold role of headquarters for their affiliates into a know-how (headquarters services) and a capital-serving part (FDI). We simulate the model to derive predictions about the impact of trade costs, plant set-up costs, fixed multinational network costs, relative country size and factor endowments on exports, multinational sales and FDI. The effects are not uniform for multinational sales and FDI. Whereas exports and affiliate sales increase with the similarity in country size, FDI is more likely to increase monotonously with the sending country's size.

Study of the Measurement and Determinants of Intra-industry Trade in East Asia*

The present paper investigates the development of intra-industry trade (IIT) among the East Asian economies over the 1970–1996 period. A dynamic index is used to capture the changes in the structure of trade flows. Based on this approach, IIT is decomposed into horizontal (HIIT) and vertical components (VIIT) and the determinants of each are investigated. The results show that both HIIT and VIIT have exhibited increased importance over the sample period in manufacturing. Using pooled panel data the two-way trade in all measures of IIT is found to be positively related to the country-specific variables, such as the market size, exhange rate depreciation, the levels of development and income, and negatively to the geographic proximity of the partners. Economies of scale are seen to have a positive influence on IIT and HIIT, but a negative relationship with VIIT. Although the relative openness of a country's trade regime shows no significant relationship with any form of IIT, a trade imbalance does affect IIT and HIIT flows. The findings have implications for assessing the structural adjustment costs associated with the trade liberalization process as HIIT is associated with demand for variety and relates to two-way trade in goods of similar quality, while VIIT is driven by international specialization and differences in relative factor endowments.

Trade Creation and Diversion Effects of Europe's Regional Liberalization Agreements

After a short background on recent developments in gravity modelling and liberalization agreements in Europe, this paper measures the trade creation and diversion effects of major European agreements based on the results of a correctly specified triple-indexed gravity model with bilateral fixed effects. For each agreement and partner country, welfare implications are discussed in sectors of different factor intensities with emphasis on the role of similarity in income or relative factor endowments between partners, as well as the date and the reciprocity of the agreement. This is followed by a description of the characteristics of the non-partner countries that are affected by these agreements in each sector.

Globalisation vs Skill‐Biased Technological Change: Implications for Unemployment and Wage Inequality

Globalisation and skill-biased technological change have emerged as alternative explanations for the increase in US wage inequality since 1980. We investigate the static and dynamic effects of these shocks on unemployment across skill classes using a model of search unemployment. Although we confirm that globalisation and skill-biased technological change both lead to increases in wage inequality, we show that these shocks may have different effects on unemployment. We also show that labour market institutions play a role in determining the size of shocks, which formalises an argument in Krugman (1994) about the labour market experiences of the US and Europe since 1980. Globalisation and skill-biased technological change (hereafter, SBTC) have emerged as alternative explanations for the increase in US wage inequality since 1980. Relatively little attention has been devoted to the effects of these shocks on unemployment across skill classes. We investigate this issue in this paper. In particular, we make four contributions. First, we link search unemployment - the leading unemployment model in the macroeconomics literature - with trade theory. In our model, relative factor endowments determine comparative advantage, and relative prices act as the transmission mechanism between countries. Second, although we confirm that globalisation and SBTC both lead to increases in wage inequality, we show that these shocks may have different effects on unemployment. Third, we show that labour market institutions play a role in determining the size of shocks. In so doing, we formalise an argument in Krugman (1994) about the labour market experiences of the US and Europe since 1980. Finally, we examine macroeconomic evidence for the US and Europe and ask how well globalisation, SBTC and other explanations in the literature fit the facts.

The Determinants of EU Processing Trade

This paper assesses the determinants of European outward and inward processing trade. Thereby, it distinguishes between size, relative factor endowment, (other) cost factors and infrastructure variables. Using a large panel of bilateral processing trade flows of the EU12 countries at the aggregate level over the period 1988–1999, we find that infrastructure variables, relative factor endowments and other cost variables are important determinants for the EU's outward processing trade. Costs also play a key role for the EU's inward processing trade.

Alliances, Imperfect Markets, and Major-Power Trade

The “new” trade theory and standard trade theory make different predictions about the composition and distribution of trade flows. Empirical evidence suggests that an increasing share of international trade consists of differentiated products, a consequence of increasing returns to scale. Nonetheless, the existing political science literature typically assumes that the conditions of standard theory hold. As such, the literature ignores the dynamic-inconsistency problem that imperfect markets can create. In doing so, it also ignores the fact that imperfect markets can shift the political prerequisites of open international markets. In this article we examine these shifts. We argue that alliances can support an optimal level of trade when scale economies rather than differences in relative factor endowments motivate it. Our empirical results support this argument, indicating that alliances exert a stronger influence on trade in goods produced under conditions of increasing rather than constant returns to scale.Earlier versions of this article were presented at the 2002 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston; the 2002 Annual Convention of the International Studies Association, New Orleans; and seminars at the University of Chicago (PIPES), the University of Colorado, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, New York University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University. For helpful comments and suggestions, we are grateful to participants in these seminars and to Regina Baker, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, William Clark, Benjamin Cohen, Christina Davis, Eric Fisher, Avery Goldstein, Stephen Kobrin, Lisa Martin, Patrick McDonald, Helen Milner, Robert Powell, Dan Reiter, Anne Sartori, Branislav Slantchev, and Beth Yarbrough. We are also grateful to Regina Baker and Patrick McDonald for research assistance.

Why Legislators are Protectionists: The Role of Majoritarian Voting in Setting Tariffs

Based on the observation that industries are often geographically concentrated, this paper proposes a new political economy model of trade protection. We associate the sectors of a specific factors model with electoral districts populated by continua of heterogeneous voters who differ in their relative factor endowments. We show how strategic delegation leads each district to elect a representative who is more protectionist than the median voter. The legislature formed by these representatives then sets tariffs that are strictly positive. Introducing additional policy instruments reveals a trade-off between efficiency and regional targetability.

Across-Product Versus Within-Product Specialization in International Trade

This paper exploits product-level U. S. import data to test trade theory. Although the United States increasingly sources the same products from both high- and low-wage countries, unit values within products vary systematically with exporter relative factor endowments and exporter production techniques. These facts reject factor-proportions specialization across products but are consistent with such specialization within products. The data are inconsistent with new trade theory models predicting an inverse relationship between price and producer productivity. The existence of within-product specialization is an important consideration for understanding the impact of globalization on firms and workers, the evolution of total factor productivity, and the likelihood of long-run income convergence.