IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/reviec/v13y2005i4p822-839.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Costly Factor Reallocation and Reduced Productivity Effects in International Trade

Author

Listed:
  • Teresa Beckham Gramm

Abstract

Most models of international trade assume extremes of factor mobility between productive uses. From perfectly mobile factors in the Heckscher–Ohlin model, to fixed capital and mobile labor in the Ricardo–Viner–Jones model, factors are assumed to move costlessly or not at all. In reality, factors are neither perfectly mobile nor fixed. This paper considers costs of reallocating factors between industries, deriving a measure of adjustment costs due to factor specificity in a two‐period model of a firm's input allocation decision. The degrees of specificity for labor and capital are then estimated based on data for 15 industries in 16 countries covering eight years. Estimating a system of nonlinear first‐order conditions using a three‐stage least squares technique, I find that recently reallocated factors are indeed less productive. Labor is 14% less productive in the period after reallocation, while capital productivity falls by 43%. Thereafter, capital, unlike labor, moves quickly toward full productivity.

Suggested Citation

  • Teresa Beckham Gramm, 2005. "Costly Factor Reallocation and Reduced Productivity Effects in International Trade," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(4), pages 822-839, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:reviec:v:13:y:2005:i:4:p:822-839
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9396.2005.00539.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9396.2005.00539.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-9396.2005.00539.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dorothee Flaig & Harald Grethe & Scott McDonald & Khalid Siddig, 2012. "Intersectoral factor movements: do adjustment costs matter for welfare?," EcoMod2012 4418, EcoMod.
    2. Conway Bruce A & Rosenblatt-Wisch Rina & Schenk-Hoppé Klaus Reiner, 2009. "(Un)anticipated Technological Change in an Endogenous Growth Model," Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics & Econometrics, De Gruyter, vol. 13(1), pages 1-21, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:reviec:v:13:y:2005:i:4:p:822-839. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0965-7576 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.