Trade and inequality in developing countries: a general equilibrium analysis

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Zhu, SC; Trefler, D
• 署名单位: Michigan State University; University of Toronto; University of Toronto; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2003.11.005
• 发表日期: 2005
• 页码: 21-48
• 关键词: International trade; INEQUALITY; Southern catch-up

摘要

Developing and newly industrialized countries that have experienced the sharpest increases in wage inequality are those whose export shares have shifted towards more skill-intensive goods. We argue that this can be explained by technological catch-up. We develop this insight using a model that features both Ricardian and endowments-based comparative advantage. In this model, Southern catch-up causes production of the least skill-intensive Northern goods to migrate South (where they become the most skill-intensive Southern goods). This raises wage inequality in both the South and the North. We provide empirical evidence that strongly supports this causal mechanism: Southern catch-up exacerbates Southern inequality by redirecting Southern export shares towards more skill-intensive goods. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.