IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/reveco/v20y2011i4p792-799.html

To integrate with a high- or low-wage country: That is the question

Author

Listed:
  • Choi, E. Kwan

Abstract

This paper considers the question of whether a country with the intermediate capital-labor ratio is better off forming a free trade area with the higher or lower wage country. Typical analyses of gains from trade ignore the effects of free trade on factor prices. When Europe forms a free trade area with a high-wage economy, the equalized wage rises and rent declines, while the price of the importable declines. Workers unambiguously benefit, but integration has an ambiguous effect on capitalists. However, consumers as a whole benefit from the integration and workers can more than offset the losses of the capitalists. On the other hand, Europe's integration with a low-wage economy raises rent but lowers the wage and the price of the labor-intensive good. Accordingly, capitalists unambiguously benefit, but integration has an ambiguous effect on workers. Again, welfare of all consumers rises and the capitalists can more than offset the losses of workers.

Suggested Citation

  • Choi, E. Kwan, 2011. "To integrate with a high- or low-wage country: That is the question," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 792-799, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:reveco:v:20:y:2011:i:4:p:792-799
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1059056011000232
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marvin H. Kosters, 1991. "Workers and Their Wages: Changing Patterns in the United States," Books, American Enterprise Institute, number 52907, September.
    2. Borjas, George J & Ramey, Valerie A, 1994. "Time-Series Evidence on the," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(2), pages 10-16, May.
    3. Robert W. Staiger & Kyle Bagwell, 1999. "An Economic Theory of GATT," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(1), pages 215-248, March.
    4. Utsav Kumar & Prachi Mishra, 2008. "Trade Liberalization and Wage Inequality: Evidence from India," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(2), pages 291-311, May.
    5. Neary, J Peter, 1985. "Two-by-Two International Trade Theory with Many Goods and Factors," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 53(5), pages 1233-1247, September.
    6. Wood Júnior, Thomaz, 1995. "Workers," RAE - Revista de Administração de Empresas, FGV-EAESP Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo (Brazil), vol. 35(2), March.
    7. Eric A. Verhoogen, 2008. "Trade, Quality Upgrading, and Wage Inequality in the Mexican Manufacturing Sector," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(2), pages 489-530.
    8. Levy, Philip I, 1997. "A Political-Economic Analysis of Free-Trade Agreements," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(4), pages 506-519, September.
    9. Wolfgang F. Stolper & Paul A. Samuelson, 1941. "Protection and Real Wages," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 9(1), pages 58-73.
    10. Tahir Abdi, 2007. "Trade liberalization, technology, relative factor supplies and the relative wage: evidence from the South," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(19), pages 2451-2463.
    11. A. D. Woodland, 1980. "Direct and Indirect Trade Utility Functions," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 47(5), pages 907-926.
    12. Slaughter, Matthew J, 1997. "Per Capita Income Convergence and the Role of International Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(2), pages 194-199, May.
    13. Reza Oladi & Hamid Beladi, 2008. "Is Regionalism Viable? A Case for Global Free Trade," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(2), pages 293-300, May.
    14. Choi, E. Kwan, 2003. "Implications of Many Industries in the Heckscher-Ohlin Model," Staff General Research Papers Archive 11379, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    15. Matthew J. Slaughter, 1997. "Per Capita Income Convergence and the Role of International Trade," NBER Working Papers 5897, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Leamer, Edward E, 1996. "Wage Inequality from International Competition and Technological Change: Theory and Country Experience," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 309-314, May.
    17. Pablo Acosta & Leonardo Gasparini, 2007. "Capital Accumulation, Trade Liberalization, and Rising Wage Inequality: The Case of Argentina," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 55(4), pages 793-812, July.
    18. Adrian Wood, 1997. "How Trade Hurt Unskilled Workers," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Jitendralal Borkakoti & Chris Milner (ed.), International Trade and Labour Markets, chapter 7, pages 140-168, Palgrave Macmillan.
    19. Ethier, Wilfred J., 1984. "Higher dimensional issues in trade theory," Handbook of International Economics, in: R. W. Jones & P. B. Kenen (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 3, pages 131-184, Elsevier.
    20. Eric W. Bond & Raymond G. Riezman & Constantinos Syropoulos, 2013. "A strategic and welfare theoretic analysis of free trade areas," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Raymond Riezman (ed.), International Trade Agreements and Political Economy, chapter 8, pages 101-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    21. Choi, E. Kwan, 2008. "Factor growth and equalized factor prices," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 517-528, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chao, Chi-Chur & Laffargue, Jean-Pierre & Sgro, Pasquale M., 2012. "Environmental control, wage inequality and national welfare in a tourism economy," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 201-207.

    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. Choi, E. Kwan, 2008. "Factor growth and equalized factor prices," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 517-528, October.
    2. Rubiana Chamarbagwala & Gunjan Sharma, 2008. "Industrial Deregulation, Skill Upgrading, and Wage Inequality in India," Caepr Working Papers 2008-002, Center for Applied Economics and Policy Research, Economics Department, Indiana University Bloomington.
    3. Paul Segerstrom & Elias Dinopoulos, 1999. "A Schumpeterian Model of Protection and Relative Wages," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(3), pages 450-472, June.
    4. Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg & Nina Pavcnik, 2007. "Distributional Effects of Globalization in Developing Countries," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 45(1), pages 39-82, March.
    5. Derek Pyne, 1996. "Revealed Preference Tests of the Stolper-Samuelson Theorem," Working Papers 1997_01, York University, Department of Economics.
    6. Accetturo, Antonio & Bugamelli, Matteo & Lamorgese, Andrea R., 2013. "Skill upgrading and exports," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 121(3), pages 417-420.
    7. Amiti, Mary & Cameron, Lisa, 2012. "Trade Liberalization and the Wage Skill Premium: Evidence from Indonesia," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 277-287.
    8. Bjornstad, Roger & Skjerpen, Terje, 2006. "Trade and inequality in wages and unemployment," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 20-44, January.
    9. Furuta, Manabu, 2016. "Trade Liberalization and Wage Inequality in the Indian Manufacturing Sector," MPRA Paper 73709, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. repec:ilo:ilowps:459401 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Bergh, Andreas & Nilsson, Therese, 2010. "Do liberalization and globalization increase income inequality?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 488-505, December.
    12. Ilina Srour & Erol Taymaz & Marco Vivarelli, 2014. "Globalization, Technology and Skills: Evidence from Turkish Longitudinal Microdata," ERC Working Papers 1405, ERC - Economic Research Center, Middle East Technical University, revised Jun 2014.
    13. Kosack, Stephen & Tobin, Jennifer L., 2015. "Which Countries’ Citizens Are Better Off With Trade?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 95-113.
    14. Paolo Manasse & Luca Stanca, 2002. "Working on the Train: Technology, Trade and Wages in Italian Manufacturing," Working Papers 61, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Nov 2002.
    15. Sener, Fuat, 2001. "Schumpeterian unemployment, trade and wages," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 119-148, June.
    16. Derek Pyne, 2006. "Microfoundations of Influencing Public Opinion: Lobbying and Voting for Trade Policies," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 21, pages 551-576.
    17. Guglielmo Caporale & Mohammad Haq, 2002. "Manufacturing Wage Differentials and Employment in Some Scandinavian Countries, the U.S. and the U.K.: An Analysis of Variance Approach," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 29(4), pages 289-304, December.
    18. Ornelas, Emanuel, 2008. "Feasible multilateralism and the effects of regionalism," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 202-224, January.
    19. Chamarbagwala, Rubiana & Sharma, Gunjan, 2011. "Industrial de-licensing, trade liberalization, and skill upgrading in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 314-336, November.
    20. Johnson, Joanne & Baldwin, John R. & Gray, Tara, 1996. "Avantages salariaux d'origine technologique dans les etablissements canadiens de fabrication pendant les annees 1980," Direction des études analytiques : documents de recherche 1996092f, Statistics Canada, Direction des études analytiques.
    21. Marco Pinto & Jochen Michaelis, 2014. "International Trade and Unemployment—the Worker-selection Effect," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(2), pages 226-252, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    JEL classification:

    • F1 - International Economics - - Trade

    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:eee:reveco:v:20:y:2011:i:4:p:792-799. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620165 .

    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.