Comparative Advantage With and Without Gains from Trade

In 1980, Deardorff, and Dixit and Norman, generalized the law of comparative advantage to show that the value of net imports at autarky prices (or DDN index) is nonnegative, so that net imports are correlated with autarky prices. The DDN index can be decomposed into the sum of (i) the equivalent variation of gains from trade, and (ii) the difference in GNP at autarky prices between autarky and trade. Several examples are given of classical and neoclassical economies where (i) or (ii) can be zero. Hence gains from trade are sufficient but not necessary for the existence of comparative advantage.     

International Economies of Scale and the Gains from Trade

In this paper, we present a two-country trade model with external economies of scale that emerge on an international level but are partially localized in each country. First, we show that the larger country exports the good produced in an industry with external economies of scale in the trading equilibrium. Second, we investigate the welfare effects of trade for the following two cases: (I) the case where external economies are completely localized in autarky; (II) the case where external economies are internationally effective in autarky. In case (II), it is shown that trade can be welfare-decreasing for both countries.     

The Voluntary (Private) Production of Public Goods,the Gains From Trade,and Comparative Advantage*

Any (finite) number of privately produced public goods are incorporated into a general trade-theory model of private goods and factors. Postulating Cournot-Nash behavior, a necessary condition for gainful trade is derived. Potential trade gains are related to the law of comparative advantage in private goods and the change in the underproduction of public goods. A sufficient condition is also proven. Trade gains/losses are compared for more or less populous economies. All the results have analogues in the literature on imperfect competition and/or increasing returns to scale.     

Dynamic Gains from International Trade with Imperfect Competition and Market Power

This paper revisits the gains from trade under imperfect competition by explicitly modeling strategic competition and entry. The papers highlights a welfare cost of imperfect competition, due to inefficiently high entry. Through increasing competition, international trade lowers price–cost markups and reduces excessive entry. This adds on a competitive channel for gains from trade to the well-known product diversity channel from previous literature. Both channels will increase the return to investment and raise the steady-state capital stock. An alternative case is possible, however, where there is inefficiently low entry. In that case, trade tends to be anticompetitive, raising price–cost markups and encouraging increased entry.     

International Cross-Ownership and Strategic Trade Policies

The paper analyzes a model of strategic trade policies in the presence of international cross-ownership of firms that are heterogenous both in terms of costs and in terms of extent of foreign ownership. The equilibrium pattern of taxes and subsidies is characterized for any arbitrary cross-ownership profile, and any number of heterogenous firms. The equilibrium subsidy (or tax) given to any firm is shown to depend, in a separable manner, on the firm's characteristics and on the covariance of the distribution of cost and foreign ownership across firms. A neutrality theorem is proved concerning the Nash equilibrium of the game between governments: in equilibrium, the pattern of trade, the value of each firm, and world welfare are independent of the ownership pattern.     

比较优势与加工贸易——基于中国各省市的实证分析

受经济全球化的影响,国际分工进一步深化,从产品层面延伸到了产品内不同工序层面,传统的比较优势理论可以解释这种新型产品内分工产生的原因及影响。作为产品内分工的表现形式——加工贸易目前已成为中国最主要的贸易方式。以2000—2005年中国各省市加工贸易进出口额为样本,利用Egger（2005）的方法对加工贸易的影响因素进行定量分析,进而得出比较优势仍是加工贸易的重要决定因素。     

Comparative Advantage and the Pattern of Trade Within Industries

This paper investigates empirically one aspect of the vertically differentiated models of intraindustry trade. These models predict that the pattern of trade within an industry is based on comparative advantage rather than being completely random. An empirical model is specified in which the relative quality of two countries' bilateral exports within an industry depends on the relative differences in unit labor requirements. Using a variety of econometric methods, the results suggest that the quality of US manufacturing exports to the UK, Japan, and Germany relative to its imports from these countries is positively and significantly related to the relative differences in value added per worker.     

International Environmental Permit Trade and Debt: the Consequences of Country Sovereignty and Cross-Default Policies*

We investigate the joint occurrence of international intertemporal trade and international environmental-permit trade, both of which are subject to country sovereignty. Assuming that side payments cannot be made to keep a debtor country from terminating international environmental cooperation, we analyze the impact of these two trade opportunities on a debtor country's incentive to continue environmental cooperation. We also show how, by way of a suitable strategic linkage between debt and permit trade, the public good of ensuring continued environmental cooperation can be provided by the supply side of private international loans.     

试论我国对外贸易如何将比较优势转化为竞争优势

文章阐述了基于劳动和资源的比较优势,引入国外先进生产要素创造竞争优势,以及产业升级创造产业结构竞争优势,同时指出,任何一国对外贸易的发展都会受到其国内资源禀赋和比较成本的制约。因此,必须发挥比较优势,提高竞争优势。     

从二元化经济看我国外贸比较优势的发展

针对我国目前的劳动密集型产业向资本密集型产业转换及比较优势退位问题，本文认为劳动密集型产业在目前的出口贸易中占据主体地位，其原因主要是由我国国内经济的二元化结构所决定的，因此应当继续遵循自己的比较优势来发展经济和贸易。当资本积累的边际效用下降到一定程度后，优化劳动力就成为促进劳动密集型产业走上效益化增长道路的重要手段，并提出可能的政策性建议，包括提高人力资本水平、生产地区转移和降低制度成本等。伴随着劳动密集型产业工资率上涨，最终达到增强本国产业和贸易竞争优势的目的。     

Gains from Trade with Lump-sum Compensation

This paper analyses the use of lump-sum compensation to ensure a Pareto improvement under free trade. It first shows how households, which are aware of the free-trade and compensation policy, may falsify autarkic consumption to get larger transfers. Despite consumption falsification, however, trade could still be gainful using lump-sum compensation under certain conditions. This paper also suggests a case in which an incentive-compatible lump-sum compensation scheme exists.     

Institutionalism and New Trade Theory: Rethinking Comparative Advantage and Trade Policy

Gomory and Baumol (2000), and Samuelson (2004) have raised concerns about international trade’s future impact on U.S. national income. The focus is how globalization may affect the size and distribution across countries of gains from trade. Though their analysis is developed using a pure trade theoretical framework, it has strands in common with institutionalist thinking. Their findings spotlight the need for a new U.S. trade policy agenda aimed at maximizing the U.S. share of gains from trade, and complementing conventional Keynesian open economy macroeconomic analysis.     

Divergence,Convergence, and the Gains From Trade*

This paper is about a country which has enjoyed a comparative advantage in producing some good(s) and suddenly finds its trading partners increasing their productivity in producing precisely those same goods; e.g., the US with its big lead in many kinds of manufacturing production in the 1950s and 1960s, and the rest of the world catching up in the same kinds of goods in the 1970s and 1980s. This is what the paper means by “convergence.” We show that such convergence results in an absolute loss of real income and standard of living for the original “leader” country.     

Market Integration and Competition in Environmental and Trade Policies

Recent empirics suggest the relevance of transport cost reductions for world trade growth along with eliminations in protectionist trade barriers. To address the welfare effects of trade cost reductions in a context of ??trade and the environment,?? we develop a two-stage game model where governments choose environmental and trade policies and firms play a Cournot-Nash game. We show that reductions in transport costs lead to lower emission taxes and higher tariffs. And, we find that the degree of pollution damage plays a central role in whether market integration is welfare-improving relative to autarky.     

Gains from Trade versus Gains from Migration: What Makes Them So Different?

Would unrestricted “economic” migration enhance the potential gains from free trade? With free migration, consumers' feasible sets become non‐convex. Under standard assumptions, however, Walrasian equilibrium exists for a continuum of individuals with dispersed ability to afford each of a finite set of possible migration plans. Then familiar conditions ensuring potential Pareto gains from trade also ensure that free migration generates similar supplementary gains, relative to an arbitrary status quo. As with the gains from customs unions, however, wealth may have to be redistributed across international borders.     

Linking Absolute and Comparative Advantage to Intra-Industry Trade Theory*

Two countries, which differ with respect to domestic demand for two groups of differentiated products, are considered in a setting of monopolistic competition where international trade is subject to transaction costs. It is shown that relative differences in demand determine the trade pattern. Each country is a net exporter of that group for which domestic demand is relatively larger-where the country has a comparative home-market advantage. Absolute differences in demand determine relative wages. Thus, the paper argues that the notions of absolute and comparative advantage as found in traditional trade theory also have meaning in new trade theory.     

中韩贸易结构与比较优势的实证分析

近年来,中韩双边贸易在快速发展的同时,两国之间的贸易摩擦日益频繁,国际竞争日趋激烈,贸易结构不平衡问题更加凸显。根据近年来中韩两国贸易的相关数据,用显示性比较优势指数等定量分析方法,对中韩两国的贸易结构进行客观评价,并对两国贸易结构的优化以及贸易可持续发展提出建议。     

Water on Fire: Gains from Electricity Trade

In light of the ongoing liberalization of electricity trade in the Nordic countries, and perhaps in Northern Europe, we argue that gains from electricity trade may be different from those traditionally associated with comparative advantages and economies of scale. In particular, we consider gains arising from the exploitation of technological complementarities between hydro and thermal systems. Our theoretical framework highlights essential features of the two systems and allows for an analysis of effects of trade. We study three trading regimes, which may arise either endogenously or because of trade regulations: day–night power exchange, seasonal energy banking and unbalanced trade. The analysis suggests that gradual trade liberalization may be costly.     

美国对外贸易的动态比较优势

作为一个综合实力最强的国家,美国并不是在建国时就是如此,其比较优势也经历了从自然资源产品向资本、技术密集型产品转变的过程,并在技术密集型产品的生产和出口上保持了较长时间的比较优势.美国相关的自然资源产品出口在经一次世界大战前后达到了高峰,在技术密集型产品方面的比较优势在20世纪50年代达到了高峰,直到20世纪90年代才呈现出了衰退的趋势.美国制造业的崛起和优势的保持与教育、技术、规模、管理水平和创新等多种因素有关.