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What Determines a Country’s Comparative Advantage ?. Exogenous factors are the most obvious. Climate (long growing season). Natural Resources (petroleum reserves). But there are also endogenous factors : education, skills, capital,. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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What Determines a Country’s Comparative Advantage?
• Exogenous factors are the most obvious
Climate (long growing season)
Natural Resources (petroleum reserves)
But there are also endogenous factors: education, skills,
capital,... • Implies that comparative advantage can
change over time: • electronic goods to pharmaceutical goods to
internet software to ….
Let’s take a closer look at how capital (K) and labor (L)
affect comparative advantage– Definitions:
• capital abundant country: has high K/L• labor abundant country: has low K/L• capital intensive production: uses high K/L• labor intensive production: uses low K/L
• Capital abundant countries: comparative advantage in capital intensive production
• Labor abundant countries: comparative advantage in labor intensive production
Factor Price Equalization
• Factor prices: – wage rate for labor– rental rate for capital
• Factor price equalization: even if factors are not mobile, factor prices will tend to equalize with trade
What causes factor price equalization? • suppose U.S. has high K/L• suppose Mexico has low K/L• then opening up trade will shift
– U.S. production toward capital intensive goods• thus demand for capital rises in U.S
– M. production toward labor intensive goods• thus demand for labor rises in Mexico
• U.S. wages fall and Mexican wages rise– that is a move toward factor price equalization– assumes ceteris paribus, productivity would rise
Gains from Expanded Markets
• Theory combines two features of production– economies of scale (declining ATC over the
relevant range of production)– product differentiation: leads to monopolistic
competition• Focuses on intraindustry trade (same industry)
– comparative advantage focuses on interindustry trade (different industries)
Getting a sense of the gains from expanded markets
17_03
Production: 1,000 MRI units Cost: $300,000 per unit
Production: 1,000 ultrasound units Cost: $200,000 per unit
United States
Production: 1,000 MRI units Cost: $300,000 per unit
Production: 1,000 ultrasound units Cost: $200,000 per unit
Germany
Production: 2,000 MRI units Cost: $150,000 per unit
U.S. exports 1,000 MRI units to Germany.
No Trade
Germany exports 1,000 ultra- sound units to U.S.
United States
Production: 2,000 ultrasound units Cost: $150,000 per unit
Germany
Now let’s develop a model to show the gains from expanded markets
• First derive a relationship between – the number of firms, – the size of the market– costs per unit (ATC)
• Second, derive a relationship between the number of firms and the price
• Third, combine the two relationships
17_04D
Cost per unit Cost per unit
1 of 4 1 of 4
DOLLARS35302520151050
DOLLARS35302520151050
QUANTITY QUANTITY
Smaller Market Larger Market
17_04C
Cost per unit Cost per unit
1 of 4 1 of 4 1 of 31 of 3
DOLLARS35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
DOLLARS35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0QUANTITY QUANTITY
Smaller Market Larger Market
17_04B
Cost per unit Cost per unit
1 of 4 1 of 4 1 of 3 1 of 21 of 3 1 of 2
DOLLARS35302520151050
DOLLARS35302520151050
QUANTITY QUANTITY
Smaller Market Larger Market
17_04A
DOLLARS35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Cost per unit Cost per unit
Numberof
firms
1 102 203 254 30
Costper unit($)
Numberof
firms
Costper unit($)
1 52 153 204 25
1 of 4 1 of 4 1 of 3 1 of 2
1 of 1
1 of 3 1 of 2 1 of 1
DOLLARS35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Smaller Market Larger Market
QUANTITY QUANTITY
Now, summarize the results using a new curve
17_05DOLLARS
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
NUMBER OF FIRMSIN THE MARKET
1 102 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Cost per unitwith largermarket
Cost per unitwith smallermarket
Curve shifts downas market gets larger.
0
Recall results from monopolistic competition model
• Product differentiation• Firms face downward sloping demand curve• With more firms in the industry, the demand
curve shifts– and gets flatter (a point we did not emphasize
earlier), so the price falls– sketch this by hand:
Now, summarize the result that more firms lead to a lower price
in another new curve17_06DOLLARS
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
NUMBER OF FIRMS IN THE MARKET
1 102 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Price in the market
0
Put the two new curves in the same diagram; look at the long run equilibrium
17_07DOLLARS
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
NUMBER OF FIRMSIN THE MARKET
1 102 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
.... but the price each firmwill charge falls with thenumber of firms.
Cost per unit at each firmincreases as more firms entera market of a fixed size...
0
Equilibriumnumber of firms
Long-runequilibriumprice
The condition of long-runequilibrium is where priceequals cost per unit.
Price (P) inthe market
Cost per unit
Finally, open up the economy; curve shifts showing effect of a larger market
17_08
DOLLARS
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
NUMBER OF FIRMSIN THE MARKET
1 102 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Price
Cost per unit with smaller market
Cost per unit with larger market
Increase in numberof firms and variety
Reductionin price
0
Cost per unitat eachfirm falls as market sizeincreases.
End of Lecture