THE DIVISION OF LABOR AND ROUNDABOUT PRODUCTION: ALLYN YOUNG REVISITED

Abstract.  This paper investigates Allyn Young's two important doctrines concerning the division of labor and roundabout production. First, apart from advancing the state of knowledge, the progressive division of labor that can occur within a given population encourages the adoption of more specialized, differentiated intermediate goods in the production process. Second, the level of division of labor and the extent of the market depend on each other. Using a general equilibrium model with increasing returns to specialization, economies of complementarity between intermediate goods, and transaction costs, we demonstrate that the level of division of labor and the number of intermediate goods increase concurrently as transaction conditions are improved.     

CONTRACT ENFORCEMENT AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE

This paper derives estimating equations from a model where individuals consume two classes of goods, and the degree of contract enforcement affects the transaction cost of trade in the two classes of goods differentially. Empirically, using Rauch's classification, internationally traded goods are classified into differentiated goods and those possessing a reference price, with the presumption that contract enforcement issues are more important for the former. It is verified that the measures of contract enforcement affect the volume of trade in both types of goods, but the impact is larger for differentiated goods.     

Endogenous vs. exogenous comparative advantage and economies of specialization vs. economies of scale

This paper draws the distinctions between the concepts of endogenous and exogenous comparative advantages and between the concepts of economies of specialization and scale. A comparison between the equilibrium model endogenizing the degree of specialization and endogenous comparative advantages, neoclassical trade model with exogenous comparative advantages, and an extended Dixit-Stiglitz model with a tradeoff between economies of scale and transaction costs is used to explore the equilibrium implications of the distinctions.     

产业内贸易对中国技能 工资差距的影响

本文试图考察产业内贸易对技能工资差距的影响,理论分析表明：它随劳动力条件的变化而变化,在劳动力无限供给条件下它取决于技术劳动力的绝对需求,由于产业内贸易必能刺激技术劳动力的绝对需求,因此必然会扩大工资差距。但在劳动力条件转向有限供给后,它又取决于技术劳动力的相对需求,而产业内贸易未必使之扩大,特别是对两类劳动力替代弹性较大的部门来说,可能会使技术劳动力的相对需求下降,并使技能工资差距收缩。本文基于中国33个产业的5年面板数据验证了上述假说。     

Search cost,trading strategies and optimal market structure

The theory of Walrasian equilibrium yields a set of prices at which the aggregate competitive demand for each commodity equals its aggregate competitive supply. However, even at equilibrium prices the theory of competitive equilibrium does not explicitly offer explanation regarding the manner in which trades are actually executed. This paper considers a model where trade takes place in a decentralized fashion and examines in a dynamic game-theoretic framework, the role of social institution of money and markets in facilitating exchange. The steady state Nash equilibrium derived in the paper demonstrates how, depending on the level of transaction costs associated with a market setup (synonymously, trading posts to exchange possible pairs of goods) appropriate monetary trade emerges, which like a hub and spoke network (Starr and Stinchcombe, 1999) makes some markets non-functioning and in equilibrium only the markets having trade through the medium of exchange continue to exist. However, despite the obvious advantages of a market setup in reducing search costs, pure random search for a complementary trading partner (as considered by Ostroy and Starr, 1974; Kiyotaki and Wright , 1989; and others) prevails in many economies, especially, in many developing economies. This paper models this feature of developing economies by introducing differences in transaction costs across agents and shows why sustainable equilibria might exist exhibiting random search for certain commodities even in the presence of established markets.     

Globalization,rigidities and national specialization: a dynamic analysis

The paper extends the ‘dynamic’ economic geography technique to analyze the evolution of national specialization as trade costs decrease. As agglomeration economies arise, due to the decrease of trade costs, countries could benefit from specializing in one sector. Nevertheless, the sector of specialization, as well as the speed of relocation of factors towards this sector, depends crucially on the costs of relocating factors and on comparative advantages. Labor market rigidities and comparative advantages contribute to lock a country in its current specialization pattern slowing relocation of factors. The model is consistent with some stylized facts on specialization and labor market rigidities in OECD countries.     

公共物品、分工演进与经济增长

在新兴古典经济学框架内,公共物品既能通过提高交易效率来促进分工演进并最终带来经济增长,也可通过改善劳动效率直接促进产出的增加,经济增长中的两难冲突发生于专业化经济和公共物品对劳动时间这一资源的争夺,资源的最终分配取决于三个重要的经济参数即专业化经济系数、公共物品的交易效率系数和劳动效率系数的大小和变化情况。文章最后从历史经验的角度来论证主要结论的正确性。     

SUPER-SPECIALIZATION AND THE GAINS FROM TRADE

An important facet of "globalization" is the spread of cross-border production, which is variously known as intro product specialization, super-specialization, or production fragmentation. This advanced stage in the international division of labor works particularly well between high-wage developed and low-wage emerging economies. But it is precisely this context in which the practice has been criticized for destroying jobs and undermining wages.
This paper examines the welfare implications of this type of specialization on the part of labor-intensive, import-competing industries in advanced countries. The results will surprise the skeptics, for when import-competing industries abandon production of labor-intensive components, wages rise and industry employment and output expand. National welfare increases. For a large country, the terms of trade improve, raising national welfare still further.     

The division of labor and the extent of the market

Summary. A firms degree of specialization is modeled as the number of different goods it produces. When a firm chooses its degree of specialization, it faces a tradeoff between the fixed cost and the marginal cost of production. A firms degree of specialization is shown to increase with the extent of the market. Meanwhile, the real wage rate, as a measure of the extent of the market, is endogenously determined in the model and is shown to increase with the division of labor.Received: 29 April 2002, Revised: 18 June 2003, JEL Classification Numbers: A10.The author thanks an anonymous referee and Antonio Ciccone for their very valuable and constructive suggestions. I thank Deborah Minehart, Robert Schwab, and Daniel Vincent for their valuable guidance and advice. I also thank Mingchao Chen, David Selover, and Xiaokai Yang for their helpful advice.     

TRADE LIBERALIZATION AND COMPENSATION*

Liberalization harms some groups while generating aggregate benefits. We consider various labor market policies that might be used to compensate those who lose from freer trade. Our goal is to find the policy that compensates each group of losers at the lowest cost to the economy. We argue that wage subsidies should be used to compensate those who bear the adjustment costs triggered by liberalization whereas employment subsidies should be used to compensate those who remain trapped in the previously protected sector. Our analysis indicates that the cost of compensation is low, provided that the right policy is used.     

产品内分工视角下服务贸易竞争力的影响因素及其启示

产品内分工影响服务贸易的基本途径是服务外包;基于11个OECD国家投入产出表的数据,实证分析了制造业消耗的生产性服务业中间投入和服务业消耗的生产性服务业中间投入、生产性服务业的劳动力成本和信息与通讯技术发展水平对服务贸易竞争力的影响,并给出了政策启示。     

Economic Development,International Trade,and Income Distribution

This paper applies the inframarginal analysis, which is a combination of marginal and total cost-benefit analysis, to investigate the relationship between division of labor, the extent of the market, productivity and inequality of income distribution. The model with transaction costs and exogenous and endogenous comparative advantages shows that as trading efficiency is improved the general equilibrium discontinuously jumps from autarky to partial division of labor with a dual structure, then to the complete division of labor where dual structure disappears. In this process different groups of individuals with different trading efficiency become involved in a certain level of division of labor at different stages of development. As the leading group becomes involved in a higher level of division of labor leaving others behind, a dual structure emerges and inequality increases. As latecomers catch up dual structure disappears and inequality declines. When the leader goes to an even higher level of specialization, dual structure occurs and inequality increases again. Inequality decreases again as the latecomers catch up. Hence, the equilibrium degree of inequality fluctuates in this development process. The relationship between inequality and productivity is neither monotonically positive nor monotonically negative. It might not be an inverted U-curve. The key driving force of economic development and trade is improvement in trading efficiency. Received January 8, 2002; revised version May 2, 2002 Published online: December 5, 2002     

SPECIALIZATION AND TRADE: A GAME THEORETICAL APPROACH

Abstract.  In this paper we consider the problem of specialization and trade for large economies with a continuum of ex ante identical individuals and with a finite number of goods. Different from the classical treatment, we adopt a game theoretical approach. Therefore in our models the prices of traded goods are endogenously formulated according to the bidding strategies of the producer-consumers. Furthermore, we assume that in the beginning individuals randomly choose their professions. As a result, with a short-run Nash equilibrium different types of professionals may have different utility levels; while through a dynamic process, a long-run Nash equilibrium with utility equalization is reached. Besides, we also attempt to provide a new algorithm for the computation of general equilibrium models in the Yang-Ng framework.     

国际贸易的内生化新体系:新兴古典贸易理论

新兴古典经济学派从消费者与生产者的统一出发,构建了贸易产生的内生化新体系。该体系拓展了国际贸易的新理论建构,以专业化与分工为基础,引进外生交易费用、内生交易费用、市场组织与层系等参数,可使得国际贸易在经济中的产生内生化,并由此形式化贸易的发展历程,为国内贸易与国际贸易建立统一的基础,克服以新古典经济学为框架的传统国际贸易理论中国际贸易与国内贸易具有不同基础的理论困难,提供了国际贸易理论的全新思路,对21世纪全球市场的形成与发展具有重要的启示意义。     

学习效应、拥挤性、地区的分工和集聚

为了解释经济发展、地区分工和产业集聚这一共生现象,本文设计了一个引入运输成本、专业化经济、学习效应和拥挤性的两地区两产品模型。模型显示了生产消费一般均衡从地区之间没有分工到完全专业化的演进过程。通常,在上面提到的两个稳定均衡之间,还存在一个非稳定的内点均衡。一旦经济从上一个稳定均衡跳到并偏离带有临界规模专业生产人数的非稳定均衡,生产系统就进入了一个持续的转移动态过程,直到下一个稳定均衡。     

Specialization, Information, and Growth: A Sequential Equilibrium Analysis

Pricing costs and information problems are introduced into a framework with consumer-producers, economies of specialization, and transaction costs, to predict the endogenous and concurrent evolution of the division of labor and of information concerning economic organization acquired by society. Concurrent evolution generates endogenous growth based on the tradeoff between gains from information about the efficient pattern of the division of labor—which can be acquired via experiments with various patterns—and experimentation costs, which relate to the costs of discovering prices. The concept of Walras sequential equilibrium is developed to analyze the social learning process which is characterized by uncertainties in the direction of the evolution and by a certain trend of the evolutionary process.     

对外开放、贸易成本与中国制造业聚集

贸易成本的变化是影响制造业空间聚集的重要因素;区域对外贸易成本的差异,促进了国内制造业向沿海地区聚集;区域市场的分割削弱了“国内市场效应”,致使制造业聚集呈现低水平特征。提高内地开放程度、缩小地区间外贸成本差距和促进国内市场一体化、降低区际贸易成本是实现区域协调发展的有效途径。     

INTERNATIONAL AND INTRA‐NATIONAL TRADE: A CONTINUUM APPROACH*

We build up a Ricardian trade model with multiple regions within a nation and examine how international trade determines interregional patterns of production and specialization. We show that the degree of interregional concentration of economic activities moves in different directions in two trading nations. The role of “absolute advantage” becomes crucial in dictating the course of income disparity across regions. We discuss cases with varying degrees of labour mobility and reconfirm the result on post‐trade interregional concentration and dispersion. Later we explore the impact of “scale factor” in this model and show how principle of comparative advantage and economies of scale interact to determine the pattern of specialization and volume of trade.     

Market size and entry in international trade: Product versus firm fixed costs

This paper develops a theoretical framework to infer the nature of fixed costs from the relationship between entry patterns in international markets and destination market size. If fixed costs are at the firm level, firms take advantage of an intrafirm spillover by expanding firm‐level product range (scope). Few firms enter with many products and dominate international trade. If fixed costs are at the product level, an interfirm spillover reduces the fixed costs to export for all firms producing the product. The resulting entry pattern consists of many firms exporting different varieties of the same product. Using cross‐country data on firm and product entry, I find empirical evidence consistent with product‐level costs. More firms than products enter in larger markets offering their consumers lower prices and a greater variety of goods within the product category.     

标准的经济性质与功能及其对技术创新的影响

标准一直在工业社会和市场经济中起着重要的基础作用,是经济活动的重要"基础设施"。传统的具有准公共产品性质的标准不含有知识产权的内容。它不仅能够减少交易成本,降低供求双方在交易中的信息不对称程度,而且能够作为企业创新的起点和平台,加快企业创新步伐,刺激系统产品的组件创新。20世纪80年代以来,ICT产业出现了标准"私有化"的趋势。这一趋势既为产业的技术创新提供了新动力,也产生了不利于技术创新的因素。