IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ecorec/v54y1978i3p387-393.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rigid Wage, Factor Immobility and Immiserizing Growth

Author

Listed:
  • EDEN SIU‐HUNG YU

Abstract

In the theory of trade and growth, Bhagwati made an interesting contribution by demonstrating the proposition that growth can be welfare reducing even at constant terms of trade, whenever distortions obtain in an economic system. Batra‐Scully strengthened the Bhagwati thesis and derived the conditions for growth to be immiserizing at improved terms of trade in the presence of a wage differential. In the present analysis, we show that economic expansion in a country which is characterized by factor immobility and/or factor price rigidity may not reduce the country's real income at constant or improved terms of trade. Specifically, the Bhagwati theorem, and its stronger version proposed by Batra‐Scully, hold for an economy with a rigidity in factor price whether or not accompanied by factor immobility. However, growth will not lower welfare at constant or improved terms of trade if factor immobility is the only imperfection existing in the factor market.

Suggested Citation

  • Eden Siu‐Hung Yu, 1978. "Rigid Wage, Factor Immobility and Immiserizing Growth," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 54(3), pages 387-393, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecorec:v:54:y:1978:i:3:p:387-393
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4932.1978.tb01640.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4932.1978.tb01640.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1475-4932.1978.tb01640.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Corden, W M & Findlay, Ronald, 1975. "Urban Unemployment, Intersectoral Capital Mobility and Development Policy," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 42(165), pages 59-78, February.
    2. Batra, Raveendra & Pattanaik, Prasanta K, 1970. "Domestic Distortions and the Gains from Trade," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 80(319), pages 638-649, September.
    3. Batra, Raveendra & Scully, Gerald W., 1971. "The theory of wage differentials: Welfare and immiserizing growth," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(2), pages 241-247, May.
    4. Richard A. Brecher, 1974. "Minimum Wage Rates and the Pure Theory of International Trade," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 88(1), pages 98-116.
    5. Harris, John R & Todaro, Michael P, 1970. "Migration, Unemployment & Development: A Two-Sector Analysis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 60(1), pages 126-142, March.
    6. Brecher, Richard A., 1974. "Optimal commercial policy for a minimum-wage economy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 139-149, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sgro, Pasquale M., 1983. "A Selective Review of Developments in International Trade Theory: Commercial Policy and Free Trade," Review of Marketing and Agricultural Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 51(01), pages 1-20, April.
    2. Maskus, Keith E., 1997. "Should core labor standards be imposed through international trade policy?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1817, The World Bank.
    3. M. Ali Khan & Po-Sheng Lin, 1982. "Sub -optimal Tariff Policy and Gains from Trade for LDCs with Urban Unemployment," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 21(2), pages 105-126.
    4. Sebastian Edwards & Alejandra Cox Edwards, 1990. "Labor Market Distortions and Structural Adjustments in Developing Countries," NBER Working Papers 3346, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Schweinberger, Albert G., 2001. "Capital, heterogeneous labour, global goods markets and unemployment," Discussion Papers, Series I 309, University of Konstanz, Department of Economics.
    6. Mathan Satchi & Jonathan Temple, 2006. "Growth and labour markets in developing countries," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 06/581, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK.
    7. Kala Krishna & Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay & Cemile Yavas, 2005. "Trade with Labor Market Distortions and Heterogeneous Labor: Why Trade Can Hurt," Contributions to Economics, in: Günter S. Heiduk & Kar-yiu Wong (ed.), WTO and World Trade, pages 65-83, Springer.
    8. Shigemi Yabuuchi, 2011. "Emigration promotion and urban unemployment," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 31(4), pages 2816-2823.
    9. Amitava Krishna Dutt, 1989. "Sectoral Balance: A Survey," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-1989-056, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    10. P R Agénor, 2005. "The Analytics of Segmented Labor Markets," Centre for Growth and Business Cycle Research Discussion Paper Series 52, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    11. Goldsmith, Peter D. & Gunjal, Kisan & Ndarishikanye, Barnabe, 2004. "Rural-urban migration and agricultural productivity: the case of Senegal," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 33-45, July.
    12. Hamid Beladi & Chi‐Chur Chao & Mong Shan Ee & Daniel Hollas, 2020. "Urban development, excessive entry of firms and wage inequality in developing countries," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(1), pages 212-238, January.
    13. Arellano, Cristina & Bulír, Ales & Lane, Timothy & Lipschitz, Leslie, 2009. "The dynamic implications of foreign aid and its variability," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 87-102, January.
    14. Richard A. Brecher & Ngo Van Long, 1989. "Trade Unions in an Open Economy: A General Equilibrium Analysis," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 65(3), pages 234-239, September.
    15. M. Ali Khan, 2007. "The Harris-Todaro Hypothesis," Labor Economics Working Papers 22206, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    16. Gupta, Manash Ranjan, 1997. "Informal sector and informal capital market in a small open less-developed economy," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 409-428, April.
    17. Vivek H. Dehejia & Yiagadeesen Samy, 2002. "Trade and Labour Standards - Theory, New Empirical Evidence, and Policy Implications," CESifo Working Paper Series 830, CESifo.
    18. Gan, Li & Hernandez, Manuel A. & Ma, Shuang, 2016. "The higher costs of doing business in China: Minimum wages and firms' export behavior," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 81-94.
    19. Mitra, Devashish & Ranjan, Priya, 2007. "Offshoring and Unemployment," IZA Discussion Papers 2805, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Kjell Erik Lommerud & Bjørn Sandvik & Odd Rune Straume, 2004. "Good Jobs, Bad Jobs and Redistribution," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 106(4), pages 703-720, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ecorec:v:54:y:1978:i:3:p:387-393. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/esausea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.