This article examines the validity of a gains from trade proposition in a world in which the direction of technological change is determined endogenously. We first give an extreme example in which a part of the world that would smoothly develop under autarchy forever remains underdeveloped under free trade. An assumption is then introduced, which excludes the example and guarantees that development under free trade dominates development under autarchy in the long-run. The assumption is closely related to the assumption of irreducible markets in McKenzie [1959]. It requires the existence of a `closed scarcity chain' connecting tastes and endowments of all types of consumers. The result complements the classical gains from trade proposition that assumes the state of technological knowledge to be given.
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Paper provided by University of Bonn, Germany in its series Discussion Paper Serie A with number
509.
Length: 22 pages Date of creation: May 1995 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:bon:bonsfa:509
Contact details of provider: Postal: Bonn Graduate School of Economics, University of Bonn, Adenauerallee 24 - 26, 53113 Bonn, Germany Fax: +49 228 73 9221 Web page: http://www.bgse.uni-bonn.de/index.php?id=517
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References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
CORDELLAÊ, Tito & MINELLI, Enrico & POLEMARCHAKIS, Heracles, 1993.
"Trade and Welfare,"
CORE Discussion Papers
1993033, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).