An Exposition of Post- Heckscher-Ohlintheories of International Trade

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A REVIEW OF POST- HECKSCHER-OHLIN THEORIES OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE Several economists in the past have come up with theories to highlight the importance and benefits of International Trade as against autarky i.e a situation of no International Trade. Economists like Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Eli Heckscher, Berlin Ohlin have at one time or the other came up with their own theories of International trade. However, the focus of this Article is to review post Heckscher-Ohlin theories of International trade. The following International trade theories were reviewed in this write-up: 1. The Rybczynski theorem 2. The Stolper–Samuelson theorem 3. Factor price equalization theorem 4. Leontief's paradox 5. The product life-cycle theory 6. New trade theory 7. "New" new trade theory 8. Theory of competitive advantage 1.0 THE RYBCZYNSKI THEOREM The Rybczynski theorem was developed in 1955 by the Polish-born English economist Tadeusz Rybczynski (1923–1998). The theorem states: At constant relative goods prices, a rise in the endowment of one factor will lead to a more than proportional expansion of the output in the sector which uses that factor intensively, and an absolute decline of the output of the other good. The Rybczynski theorem displays how changes in an endowment affects the outputs of the goods when full employment is sustained. The theorem is useful in analyzing the effects of capital investment, immigration and emigration within the context of a Heckscher-Ohlin model. Consider the diagram below, depicting a labour constraint in red and a capital constraint in blue. Suppose production occurs initially on the production possibility frontier (PPF) at point A. Suppose there is an increase in the labour endowment. This will cause an outward shift in the labour constraint. The PPF and thus production will shift to point B. Production of clothing, the labour
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