A Multi-Country Approach to Factor-Proportions Trade and Trade Costs.

Classic trade questions are reconsidered by generalizing a factor-proportions model to multiple countries, multi-stage production, and country-specific trade costs. We derive patterns of production specialization and trade for a matrix of countries that differ in relative endowments (columns) and tr...

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Main Authors: Markusen, J, Venables, A
Format: Working paper
Language:English
Published: National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. 2005
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author Markusen, J
Venables, A
author_facet Markusen, J
Venables, A
author_sort Markusen, J
collection OXFORD
description Classic trade questions are reconsidered by generalizing a factor-proportions model to multiple countries, multi-stage production, and country-specific trade costs. We derive patterns of production specialization and trade for a matrix of countries that differ in relative endowments (columns) and trade costs (rows). We demonstrate how the ability to fragment production and/or a proportional change in all countries' trade costs alters these patterns. Production specialization and the volume of trade are higher with fragmentation for most countries but interestingly, for a large block of countries, these variables fall following fragmentation. Countries with moderate trade costs engage in market-oriented assembly, while those with lower trade costs engage in export-platform production. These two cases correspond to the concepts of horizontal and vertical affiliate production in the literature on multinational enterprises. Increases in specialization and the volume of trade accelerate as trade costs go to zero with and without fragmentation.
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spelling oxford-uuid:82ca2e73-99b9-4cd0-9ac6-c50796c2c0a32022-03-26T21:39:46ZA Multi-Country Approach to Factor-Proportions Trade and Trade Costs.Working paperhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_8042uuid:82ca2e73-99b9-4cd0-9ac6-c50796c2c0a3EnglishDepartment of Economics - ePrintsNational Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.2005Markusen, JVenables, AClassic trade questions are reconsidered by generalizing a factor-proportions model to multiple countries, multi-stage production, and country-specific trade costs. We derive patterns of production specialization and trade for a matrix of countries that differ in relative endowments (columns) and trade costs (rows). We demonstrate how the ability to fragment production and/or a proportional change in all countries' trade costs alters these patterns. Production specialization and the volume of trade are higher with fragmentation for most countries but interestingly, for a large block of countries, these variables fall following fragmentation. Countries with moderate trade costs engage in market-oriented assembly, while those with lower trade costs engage in export-platform production. These two cases correspond to the concepts of horizontal and vertical affiliate production in the literature on multinational enterprises. Increases in specialization and the volume of trade accelerate as trade costs go to zero with and without fragmentation.
spellingShingle Markusen, J
Venables, A
A Multi-Country Approach to Factor-Proportions Trade and Trade Costs.
title A Multi-Country Approach to Factor-Proportions Trade and Trade Costs.
title_full A Multi-Country Approach to Factor-Proportions Trade and Trade Costs.
title_fullStr A Multi-Country Approach to Factor-Proportions Trade and Trade Costs.
title_full_unstemmed A Multi-Country Approach to Factor-Proportions Trade and Trade Costs.
title_short A Multi-Country Approach to Factor-Proportions Trade and Trade Costs.
title_sort multi country approach to factor proportions trade and trade costs
work_keys_str_mv AT markusenj amulticountryapproachtofactorproportionstradeandtradecosts
AT venablesa amulticountryapproachtofactorproportionstradeandtradecosts
AT markusenj multicountryapproachtofactorproportionstradeandtradecosts
AT venablesa multicountryapproachtofactorproportionstradeandtradecosts