Factor-Price Equalization By Trade In Joint and Non-Joint Production |
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Authors: | Paul A Samuelson |
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Institution: | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 |
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Abstract: | Sans joint products, relative factor prices do determine relative goods prices. Free trade in goods thus can hope to equalize factor returns when this relationship is monotone and therefore uniquely reversible. However, when joint production obtains, often the same relative factor prices can entail an infinity of relative goods prices depending upon the composition of tastes and demand. In consequence, trade's equalization of goods prices is compatible with factor-returns inequality. Generic and singular relationships are described. |
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