IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mie/wpaper/556.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

On Testing the Law of Comparative Advantage

Author

Listed:
  • Kozo Kiyota

    (Research Seminar in International Economics, University of Michigan)

Abstract

This paper reconsiders the law of comparative advantage (Deardorff, 1980, 1994) from an empirical point of view. I show that not only net exports valued at autarky prices but also those valued at free trade prices are needed to test the law of comparative advantage when trade is not balanced. This result brings into question the empirical success of the test of comparative advantage that Bernhofen and Brown (2004) have applied to Japan. I propose a more general test that is consistent with both balanced and unbalanced trade and apply it to Japan. The law of comparative advantage does not necessarily hold in Japan once trade imbalance is taken into account.

Suggested Citation

  • Kozo Kiyota, 2007. "On Testing the Law of Comparative Advantage," Working Papers 556, Research Seminar in International Economics, University of Michigan.
  • Handle: RePEc:mie:wpaper:556
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.fordschool.umich.edu/rsie/workingpapers/Papers551-575/r556.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leamer, Edward E, 1980. "The Leontief Paradox, Reconsidered," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 88(3), pages 495-503, June.
    2. Daniel M. Bernhofen & John C. Brown, 2004. "A Direct Test of the Theory of Comparative Advantage: The Case of Japan," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(1), pages 48-67, February.
    3. Alan Deardorff, 1994. "Exploring the limits of comparative advantage," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 130(1), pages 1-19, March.
    4. Daniel M. Bernhofen & John C. Brown, 2005. "An Empirical Assessment of the Comparative Advantage Gains from Trade: Evidence from Japan," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(1), pages 208-225, March.
    5. Takatoshi Ito, 1991. "The Japanese Economy," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262090295, December.
    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. Kozo Kiyota, 2011. "A test of the law of comparative advantage, revisited," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 147(4), pages 771-778, November.
    2. Daniel Bernhofen, 2010. "The Empirics of General Equilibrium Tade Theory: What Have we Learned?," CESifo Working Paper Series 3242, CESifo.
    3. Fajgelbaum, Pablo & Redding, Stephen, 2014. "External integration, structural transformation and economic development: evidence from Argentina," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60285, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Mathias Hoffmann & Toshihiro Okubo, 2012. "By a Silken Thread: regional banking integration and pathways to financial development in Japan's Great Recession," Keio/Kyoto Joint Global COE Discussion Paper Series 2012-021, Keio/Kyoto Joint Global COE Program.
    5. Louis Dupuy & Matthew Agarwala, 2014. "International trade and sustainable development," Chapters, in: Giles Atkinson & Simon Dietz & Eric Neumayer & Matthew Agarwala (ed.), Handbook of Sustainable Development, chapter 25, pages 399-417, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Toshihiro Atsumi, 2009. "Silk, Regional Rivalry, and the Impact of the Port Openings in Nineteenth Century Japan," Discussion Papers 09/15, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    7. Pablo Fajgelbaum & Stephen J. Redding, 2022. "Trade, Structural Transformation, and Development: Evidence from Argentina 1869–1914," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 130(5), pages 1249-1318.
    8. Masaki Nakabayashi, 2014. "Imposed Efficiency of Treaty Ports: Japanese Industrialization and Western Imperialist Institutions," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(2), pages 254-271, May.
    9. Matthias Aistleitner & Stephan Puehringer, 2020. "Exploring the trade (policy) narratives in economic elite discourse," ICAE Working Papers 110, Johannes Kepler University, Institute for Comprehensive Analysis of the Economy.
    10. Toshihiro Atsumi & Daniel M. Bernhofen, 2011. "The effects of the unequal treaties on normative, economic and institutional changes in 19th century Japan," Discussion Papers 11/19, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    11. Kris James Mitchener & Mari Ohnuki, 2008. "Institutions, Competition, and Capital Market Integration in Japan," IMES Discussion Paper Series 08-E-12, Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan.
    12. Hoffmann, Mathias & Okubo, Toshihiro, 2022. "‘By a silken thread’: Regional banking integration and credit reallocation during Japan's lost decade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    13. Daniel M. Bernhofen & John C. Brown, 2009. "Testing the General Validity of the Heckscher-Ohlin Theorem: The Natural Experiment of Japan," Global COE Hi-Stat Discussion Paper Series gd09-058, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    14. Kozo Kiyota, 2021. "The Leontief Paradox Redux," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 296-313, May.
    15. Atsumi, Toshihiro, 2010. "Silk, regional rivalry, and the impact of the port openings in nineteenth century Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 519-539, December.
    16. Redding, Stephen & Fajgelbaum, Pablo, 2014. "External Integration, Structural Transformation and Economic Development: Evidence from Argentina 1870-1914," CEPR Discussion Papers 10026, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Daniel M. Bernhofen & John C. Brown, 2016. "Testing the General Validity of the Heckscher-Ohlin Theorem," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(4), pages 54-90, November.
    18. Federico J. Diez & Jesse Mora & Alan C. Spearot, 2016. "Firms in international trade," Working Papers 16-25, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    19. Sébastien Jean & Ariell Reshef, 2017. "Why Trade, and What Would Be the Consequences of Protectionism?," CEPII Policy Brief 2017-18, CEPII research center.
    20. John Romalis, 2004. "Factor Proportions and the Structure of Commodity Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(1), pages 67-97, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    International Law of Comparative Advantage; Trade Imbalance;

    JEL classification:

    • F1 - International Economics - - Trade

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:mie:wpaper:556. 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: FSPP Webmaster (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/riumius.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.