Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/200506 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
CHOPE Working Paper No. 2019-11
Publisher: 
Duke University, Center for the History of Political Economy (CHOPE), Durham, NC
Abstract: 
Paul Samuelson's famous 1948 "factor price equalization theorem" was his main contribution to international trade theory. He demonstrated conditions under which trade in goods only would lead to full equalization of the remuneration of productive factors across countries. In practice, general factor-price equalization has not been a feature of the international economy, as Samuelson acknowledged. His theorem came out when development economics was starting to emerge as a new field of research and policy, largely based on observed international income asymmetries between poor and rich countries. The paper investigates how development economists reacted mostly (but not always) critically to that theorem, with attention to the methodological issues involved and to Samuelson's own perception of the theorem's relevance.
Subjects: 
Samuelson
factor-price equalization
development economics
trade theory
JEL: 
B20
B27
B30
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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