A two-region model of redistribution, migration and international trade

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Huizinga, H
• 署名单位: Tilburg University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/S0047-2727(98)00077-2
• 发表日期: 1999
• 页码: 335-354
• 关键词: Redistribution; migration; TRADE

摘要

This paper first considers a closed economy consisting of two regions and inhabited by workers of heterogeneous productivity. Each region in principle can redistribute income among its workers. Workers are free to migrate between the two regions. If the two regions differ in their extent of income redistribution, there generally are two types of worker allocation equilibria: equilibria where the two national distributions of labor productivity overlap, and equilibria where labor is stratified by productivity between the two regions. In a stratified equilibrium, the best workers reside in the region with the lowest level of income redistribution. The impact of changes in regional redistribution policy on worker allocation, regional production and the regional terms of trade are considered. The paper also considers a two-country world, with each country consisting of two regions. In this instance, national differences in regional income redistribution and labor productivity distributions are sources of comparative advantage and hence of international trade. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved. JEL classification: F10; H23.