Presentazione di PowerPoint

1
Note sparse e grafici sul modello di Heckscher e
Ohlin
Luca De Benedictis
2
Factor endowments
Home is relatively capital-abundant (
labor-scarce)
Foreign is relatively labor-abundant (
capital-scarce)
3
Factor intensities
Good Y relatively capital-intensive
Good X is relatively labor-intensive
4
Endowments and production possibilities
In autarky, the relative price of the
labor-intensive good (X) is lower in the
labor-abundant country (Foreign).
Note Here Y is more capital-intensive at all
factor price ratios.
5
International equilibrium in the Heckscher-Ohlin
model
CD
6
Trade in the Heckscher-Ohlin model

• The Heckscher-Ohlin theorem A country will
  export the commodity that intensively uses its
  relatively abundant factor.
• The relatively labor-abundant country exports
  labor services embodied in goods and imports
  capital services embodied in goods

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Trade and factor prices in theHeckscher-Ohlin
model
Indirect exports of a factor
supply of the factor in the domestic market
domestic price of the factor
Indirect imports of a factor
supply of the factor in the domestic market
domestic price of the factor
Trade tends to make factor prices more similar
between trading countries
8
Product prices and factor prices in the H-O model
Y
X
9
Unit value isoquants and isocosts in the H-O model
K
L
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Some stylized facts about economic trends since
1975

• Physical and political barriers to trade have
  been significantly reduced in many countries
• Real wages (for unskilled labor) have remained
  constant or even fallen in the North - increased
  income inequalities there.
• Real wages have increased for large groups of
  workers in the South (but not for all and large
  variations between countries).

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Factor price equalization
K
L
12
Limits to factor price equalization
K
L
13
How will a change in product prices affect factor
prices?
Y
A
B
B
A
X
and
14
Another look at how a change in product prices
affects factor prices
K
L
15
How will a change in product prices affect real
wages?
B
A
K
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The Stolper-Samuelson theorem
If there are constant returns to scale and both
goods continue to be produced, a relative
increase in the price of a good will increase the
real return to the factor used intensively in
that industry and reduce the real return to the
other factor.

• In our example
• there was a relative increase in the price of
  good X
• labor is used intensively in that sector
• in both sectors, the capital-intensity of
  production was raised after the price change

and
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The effect of changes in factor endowments on
output
Assume constant relative prices of goods
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The Rybczynski theorem
If relative commodity prices are constant and if
both commodities continue to be produced, an
increase in the supply of a factor will lead to
an increase in the output of the commodity using
that factor intensively and a decrease in the
output of the other commodity.

• In our example
• there was an increase in the supply of labor
• labor is used intensively in the production of
  good X

and