Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/64161
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2007
Series/Report no.: 
Working Paper No. 2007-06
Publisher: 
University of Massachusetts, Department of Economics, Amherst, MA
Abstract: 
By focusing on structural features within developing economies, this paper attempts to reconcile developments observed in many post-liberalization countries with the help of modified versions of standard trade theory factor endowment models. The common thread generating most of our interesting results is the presence of sectors that are even more labor-intensive than those producing traded goods. Measures undertaken to enhance public sector efficiency and attract investment in an import-intensive export sector may increase rental-wage and skilled-unskilled wage gaps, contra the predictions of the simple Heckscher-Ohlin-Samuelson model. Moreover, increasing income inequality can exist side-by-side with informalization of the economy. The greater unskilled labor-intensity of the informal sector, factor market rigidities in the formal sector, and the sector specificity of some factors crucially influence the outcomes of policy experiments. Even within a simple framework that assumes full employment of resources, large segments of labor may have good reason to fear the consequences of reform.
Subjects: 
specific factors model
Ricardo-Viner model
Heckscher-Ohlin model
informalization
international production networks
elasticity of factor substitution
nominal wage rigidity
income inequality
skill premium
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
194.21 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.