IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jitecd/v21y2012i3p321-345.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Capital mobility, diminishing returns and wage inequality

Author

Listed:
  • Yao Li

Abstract

This article sets up a new economic geography model with diminishing marginal returns to labor and capital and examines the effect of capital liberalization on industrial agglomeration and wage inequality. The simulation results indicate that, for a country with strict capital controls, capital liberalization is able to reduce the wage difference between countries in both nominal and real terms. It is also shown that the diminishing marginal returns and the increasing returns to scale have opposite effects on the location of economic activities: the effect of increasing returns to scale is prone to agglomerating economic activities into larger economies, while the effect of diminishing marginal returns tends to decentralize economic activities.

Suggested Citation

  • Yao Li, 2012. "Capital mobility, diminishing returns and wage inequality," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 321-345, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jitecd:v:21:y:2012:i:3:p:321-345
    DOI: 10.1080/09638191003759949
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09638191003759949
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09638191003759949?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Amiti, Mary, 2005. "Location of vertically linked industries: agglomeration versus comparative advantage," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 809-832, May.
    2. Puga, Diego, 1999. "The rise and fall of regional inequalities," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 303-334, February.
    3. Richard Baldwin & Rikard Forslid & Philippe Martin & Gianmarco Ottaviano & Frederic Robert-Nicoud, 2005. "Economic Geography and Public Policy," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 7524.
    4. Krugman, Paul, 1991. "Increasing Returns and Economic Geography," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 483-499, June.
    5. Baldwin, Richard E., 1999. "Agglomeration and endogenous capital," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 253-280, February.
    6. Venables, Anthony J, 1996. "Equilibrium Locations of Vertically Linked Industries," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 37(2), pages 341-359, May.
    7. Yamamoto, Kazuhiro, 2008. "Location of industry, market size, and imperfect international capital mobility," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 518-532, September.
    8. Martin, Philippe & Rogers, Carol Ann, 1995. "Industrial location and public infrastructure," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3-4), pages 335-351, November.
    9. Antonio Ricci, Luca, 1999. "Economic geography and comparative advantage:: Agglomeration versus specialization," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 357-377, February.
    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. Maria Florencia Granato, 2011. "REGIONAL NEW ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY (refereed paper)," ERSA conference papers ersa10p747, European Regional Science Association.
    2. Bagoulla, Corinne & Péridy, Nicolas, 2011. "Market access and the other determinants of North–South manufacturing location choice: An application to the Euro-Mediterranean area," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 537-561.
    3. Stefan Wrzaczek, 2014. "Social optimality in the constructed-capital model," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 22(1), pages 211-232, March.
    4. Lili Tan & Dao-Zhi Zeng, 2014. "Spatial inequality between developed and developing economies," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 93(2), pages 229-248, June.
    5. José M. Gaspar, 2018. "A prospective review on New Economic Geography," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 61(2), pages 237-272, September.
    6. Fabien Candau, 2008. "Entrepreneurs' Location Choice And Public Policies: A Survey Of The New Economic Geography," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 909-952, December.
    7. Kristian Behrens & Frédéric Robert‐Nicoud, 2009. "Krugman's Papers in Regional Science: The 100 dollar bill on the sidewalk is gone and the 2008 Nobel Prize well‐deserved," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 88(2), pages 467-489, June.
    8. Okubo, Toshihiro, 2009. "Trade liberalisation and agglomeration with firm heterogeneity: Forward and backward linkages," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 530-541, September.
    9. Koji Nishikimi & Ikuo Kuroiwa, 2011. "Analytical Framework for East Asian Integration (1): Industrial Agglomeration and Concentrated Dispersion," Chapters, in: Masahisa Fujita & Ikuo Kuroiwa & Satoru Kumagai (ed.), The Economics of East Asian Integration, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Picard, Pierre M. & Toulemonde, Eric, 2006. "Firms agglomeration and unions," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(3), pages 669-694, April.
    11. Toshiaki Takahashi & Hajime Takatsuka & Dao-Zhi Zeng, 2013. "Spatial inequality, globalization, and footloose capital," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 53(1), pages 213-238, May.
    12. Baldwin, Richard E. & Martin, Philippe, 2004. "Agglomeration and regional growth," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 60, pages 2671-2711, Elsevier.
    13. Theodore Tsekeris & Klimis Vogiatzoglou, 2014. "Public infrastructure investments and regional specialization: empirical evidence from Greece," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 6(3), pages 265-289, August.
    14. Epifani, Paolo, 2005. "Heckscher-Ohlin and agglomeration," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 645-657, November.
    15. Ottaviano, Gianmarco & Thisse, Jacques-Francois, 2004. "Agglomeration and economic geography," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 58, pages 2563-2608, Elsevier.
    16. Gianmarco Ottaviano, 2003. "Regional Policy in the Global Economy: Insights from New Economic Geography," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(6-7), pages 665-673.
    17. Li, Yao, 2007. "Capital liberalization, industrial agglomeration and wage inequality," MPRA Paper 11355, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised May 2008.
    18. Theresa Grafeneder-Weissteiner & Klaus Prettner, 2009. "Agglomeration and population ageing in a two region model of exogenous growth," VID Working Papers 0901, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna.
    19. Olga Alonso-Villar, 2006. "A Reflection On The Effects Of Transport Costs Within The New Economic Geography," Working Papers 57, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    20. Ching-mu Chen, 2019. "The effect of capital flow on the agglomeration evolution of footloose entrepreneurs," Asia-Pacific Journal of Regional Science, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 761-791, October.

    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:taf:jitecd:v:21:y:2012:i:3:p:321-345. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RJTE20 .

    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.