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Consider a Ricardian Model of Trade. There are two countries, Home and Foreign, who produce two goods Food and Clothing, using one factor of production, Labor

Consider a Ricardian Model of Trade. There are two countries, Home and Foreign, who produce two goods Food and Clothing, using one factor of production, Labor

Consider a Ricardian Model of Trade. There are two countries, Home and Foreign, who produce two goods Food and Clothing, using one factor of production, Labor

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e-there-<strong>are</strong>-<strong>two</strong>-<strong>countries</strong>-home-<strong>and</strong>-foreign-<strong>who</strong>-produc<br />

e-<strong>two</strong>-<strong>goods</strong>-food-<strong>and</strong>-clothing-<strong>using</strong>-<strong>one</strong>-<strong>factor</strong>-<strong>of</strong>-prod<br />

uction-labor/<br />

1: <strong>Consider</strong> a <strong>Ricardian</strong> <strong>Model</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Trade</strong>. <strong>There</strong> <strong>are</strong> <strong>two</strong> <strong>countries</strong>, <strong>Home</strong><br />

<strong>and</strong> <strong>Foreign</strong>, <strong>who</strong> <strong>produce</strong> <strong>two</strong> <strong>goods</strong> <strong>Food</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Clothing</strong>, <strong>using</strong> <strong>one</strong> <strong>factor</strong> <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>production</strong>, <strong>Labor</strong>. The unit input requirements <strong>are</strong> given by the table below<br />

in the <strong>two</strong> <strong>countries</strong>.<br />

GoodnCountry <strong>Home</strong> <strong>Foreign</strong><br />

<strong>Food</strong> 3 9<br />

<strong>Clothing</strong> 9 3<br />

<strong>Home</strong> has 30 units <strong>of</strong> labor while foreign has 90 units. <strong>Food</strong> is consumed in<br />

a <strong>one</strong> to <strong>one</strong> ratio relative to clothing at all prices by both <strong>countries</strong>. Use graph<br />

paper below.<br />

a: Draw the world PPF under trade. If the price <strong>of</strong> clothing is 1; what is<br />

the price <strong>of</strong> food under free trade? What <strong>are</strong> equilibrium wages (what a unit <strong>of</strong><br />

labor earns) in each country?


: Depict the trading equilibrium <strong>and</strong> the prices, <strong>production</strong>, imports <strong>and</strong><br />

exports by each country in your graph. You do not need to solve for it alge-<br />

braically, just on graph paper.<br />

c: What happens to equilibrium prices if labor migrates from foreign to home<br />

so that home has 90 workers <strong>and</strong> foreign has 30. <strong>Labor</strong> that migrates then has<br />

the same productivity as native labor.<br />

d: Would labor that stayed behind in <strong>Foreign</strong> gain or lose from this mi-<br />

gration? Why? (What happens to the budget set <strong>of</strong> a <strong>Foreign</strong> worker? If it<br />

exp<strong>and</strong>s, he must gain.)<br />

e: Suppose productivity abroad quadrupled, that is, the unit labor require-<br />

ments fell to 1/4 <strong>of</strong> the levels above. (Note that in this case <strong>Foreign</strong> has an<br />

absolute advantage in both <strong>goods</strong>.) What happens to world prices? Do home<br />

workers gain from foreign becoming more productive ? Do foreign workers gain<br />

from its productivity improvement? (Comparisons should be relative to the<br />

outcome in part b)<br />

f: Can the PPF when labor is mobile between <strong>countries</strong> lie strictly outside<br />

the world PPF through trade or must it touch it somewhere? Can you give<br />

conditions under which they would touch at some point <strong>and</strong> when they would


not? (Hint: consider what happens when <strong>one</strong> country has an absolute advantage<br />

in both <strong>goods</strong> <strong>and</strong> when this is not the case.)<br />

1<br />

g: Given your answers to part f:, how would you respond to the following<br />

quote:<br />

Given the lack <strong>of</strong> trade barriers today, there <strong>are</strong> orders <strong>of</strong> magnitude more<br />

gains to be had from permitting labor migration than trying to further liberalize<br />

trade.<br />

2. This problem asks you to think <strong>of</strong> issues <strong>using</strong> a relative dem<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> sup-<br />

ply framework more generally. The U.S. <strong>and</strong> the rest <strong>of</strong> the world(ROW) <strong>are</strong><br />

the <strong>two</strong> <strong>countries</strong> in the world. They make <strong>two</strong> <strong>goods</strong>, <strong>Food</strong> (F) <strong>and</strong> Wine (W)<br />

The U.S. exports W:<br />

a: What would be the e¤ect <strong>of</strong> an advertising campaign to promote W in<br />

the ROW? ( Assume that the advertising campaign makes foreigners dem<strong>and</strong><br />

more W relative to F at any relative price.) What would shift? What would<br />

happen to relative prices in the world? Would the U.S. gain or lose from such<br />

advertising if advertising is essentially costless?<br />

b: A war destroys half <strong>of</strong> ROWs productive capacity shrinking its Production


Possibility Frontier (PPF) uniformly inwards for all <strong>goods</strong>. What would shift?<br />

What would happen to prices in the world? Would the U.S. gain or lose? What<br />

about ROW?<br />

c: Suppose that the US consumes mostly wine while the rest <strong>of</strong> the world<br />

consumes mostly food. Would there be a secondary burden <strong>of</strong> foreign aid given<br />

by the US to the ROW? Could the US reduce this secondary burden by giving<br />

its aid in barrels <strong>of</strong> wine? Why/Why not?<br />

3: This question asks you to think <strong>of</strong> how trade can result in gains due to<br />

increasing competition <strong>and</strong> variety. You do not need to do any algebra. Just<br />

draw the graphs needed.<br />

Suppose there <strong>two</strong> <strong>countries</strong> <strong>of</strong> equal size, i.e., both have the same number<br />

<strong>of</strong> people, S. <strong>There</strong> <strong>are</strong> n symmetric rms. Each individual has dem<strong>and</strong> for<br />

the output <strong>of</strong> a representative rm denoted by q(p; P; n) where p is the rms<br />

price, P is the overall average price in the market, <strong>and</strong> n is the number <strong>of</strong><br />

rms. q(p; P; n) is decreasing in p, increasing in P <strong>and</strong> decreasing in n. With S<br />

individuals, the dem<strong>and</strong> for a rm is thus Sq(p; P; n): Let c be marginal cost <strong>and</strong><br />

F be the xed cost <strong>of</strong> <strong>production</strong>. Firms behave monopolistically competitively<br />

<strong>and</strong> choose p to maximize prots taking P <strong>and</strong> n as given. Assume all rms <strong>are</strong>


symmetric so that in equilibrium p = P <strong>and</strong> that rms enter till price equals<br />

average cost, i.e., prots <strong>are</strong> 0.<br />

a: Depict the prot maximizing price charged by a representative rm for<br />

given P <strong>and</strong> n. You do not need to do any algebra. Just to draw dem<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong><br />

the prot maximizing price.<br />

b: Show that the maximized prots <strong>of</strong> the rm <strong>are</strong> higher when its costs fall.<br />

(Hint: variable prots <strong>are</strong> also the sum <strong>of</strong> the di¤erence in marginal cost <strong>and</strong><br />

marginal revenue over units <strong>produce</strong>d)<br />

c: As n rises, what happens to the prot maximizing price? What is the<br />

intuition? Call this relation the PP curve.<br />

d: Does an increase (or decrease) in S shift the PP curve? Why?<br />

2<br />

e: As n rises, what happens to output per rm in symmetric equilibrium <strong>and</strong><br />

therefore to average cost? What is the economic intuition here? Call this curve<br />

CC:<br />

f: Does an increase in S shift CC? Why?<br />

g: Depict the equilibrium n <strong>and</strong> p without <strong>and</strong> with trade where trade is just<br />

a doubling <strong>of</strong> S?


h: Explain what the e¤ects <strong>of</strong> trade <strong>are</strong> on prices, vari

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