IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ejores/v311y2023i3p1188-1201.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Comparative advantage with many goods: New treatment and results

Author

Listed:
  • Toraubally, Waseem A.

Abstract

This paper constitutes the very first treatment of the Shapley–Shubik (1977) market-game mechanism with a continuum of commodities. We develop an oligopolistic-competition model in which product prices are endogenously determined, via buyers’ and sellers’ strategic decisions, and we lay down and examine its mathematical structure. Taking agents’ market power into account, we restudy the Ricardian Law of Comparative Advantage in a many-commodity framework, and obtain a (new) result that is in line with what is perceived in real-world markets: when agents act strategically, they do not specialise based on comparative advantages. For a large class of utility functions, we prove the existence of equilibria at all of which trade is driven neither by absolute nor comparative advantages, but exclusively by strategic decision-making.

Suggested Citation

  • Toraubally, Waseem A., 2023. "Comparative advantage with many goods: New treatment and results," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 311(3), pages 1188-1201.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ejores:v:311:y:2023:i:3:p:1188-1201
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2023.05.027
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221723004071
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ejor.2023.05.027?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thierry Mayer & Marc J. Melitz & Gianmarco I. P. Ottaviano, 2021. "Product Mix and Firm Productivity Responses to Trade Competition," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 103(5), pages 874-891, December.
    2. J. Peter Neary, 2016. "International Trade in General Oligopolistic Equilibrium," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 669-698, September.
    3. Darrell Duffie & Chi-Fu Huang, 2005. "Implementing Arrow-Debreu Equilibria By Continuous Trading Of Few Long-Lived Securities," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Sudipto Bhattacharya & George M Constantinides (ed.), Theory Of Valuation, chapter 4, pages 97-127, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    4. Antonio Ricci, Luca, 1997. "A Ricardian Model of New Trade and Location Theory," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 12, pages 47-61.
    5. Andrew B. Bernard & Jonathan Eaton & J. Bradford Jensen & Samuel Kortum, 2003. "Plants and Productivity in International Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1268-1290, September.
    6. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen & Stephen J. Redding & Peter K. Schott, 2007. "Firms in International Trade," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(3), pages 105-130, Summer.
    7. Soo, Kwok Tong, 2017. "Indivisibilities in the Ricardian model of trade," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 311-317.
    8. Jonathan Eaton & Samuel Kortum, 2012. "Putting Ricardo to Work," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 26(2), pages 65-90, Spring.
    9. Fu, Dahai & Chen, Yakun & Zhang, Ying, 2020. "Linder hypothesis revisited: Does it hold for services trade?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    10. Hsieh, Chang-Tai & Ossa, Ralph, 2016. "A global view of productivity growth in China," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 209-224.
    11. Evgeny Zhelobodko & Sergey Kokovin & Mathieu Parenti & Jacques‐François Thisse, 2012. "Monopolistic Competition: Beyond the Constant Elasticity of Substitution," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 80(6), pages 2765-2784, November.
    12. Peck, James & Shell, Karl & Spear, Stephen E., 1992. "The market game: existence and structure of equilibrium," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 271-299.
    13. Spear, Stephen E., 2003. "The electricity market game," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 300-323, April.
    14. Keith Head & John Ries, 2001. "Increasing Returns versus National Product Differentiation as an Explanation for the Pattern of U.S.-Canada Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(4), pages 858-876, September.
    15. Marc J. Melitz & Giancarlo I. P. Ottaviano, 2021. "Market Size, Trade, and Productivity," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Firms and Workers in a Globalized World Larger Markets, Tougher Competition, chapter 4, pages 87-108, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    16. Krugman, Paul, 1980. "Scale Economies, Product Differentiation, and the Pattern of Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(5), pages 950-959, December.
    17. Neary, J. Peter & Tharakan, Joe, 2012. "International trade with endogenous mode of competition in general equilibrium," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 118-132.
    18. Toraubally, Waseem A., 2022. "Strategic trading and Ricardian comparative advantage," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 428-447.
    19. Toraubally, Waseem A., 2019. "Arbitrage equilibria in large games with many commodities," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 24-28.
    20. Arnaud Costinot, 2009. "An Elementary Theory of Comparative Advantage," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(4), pages 1165-1192, July.
    21. Dixit, Avinash K & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1977. "Monopolistic Competition and Optimum Product Diversity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(3), pages 297-308, June.
    22. Stephen C. Graves, 1982. "The Application of Queueing Theory to Continuous Perishable Inventory Systems," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(4), pages 400-406, April.
    23. Costas Arkolakis & Arnaud Costinot & Dave Donaldson & Andrés Rodríguez-Clare, 2019. "The Elusive Pro-Competitive Effects of Trade," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 86(1), pages 46-80.
    24. Alfonso Irarrazabal & Andreas Moxnes & Luca David Opromolla, 2015. "The Tip of the Iceberg: A Quantitative Framework for Estimating Trade Costs," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(4), pages 777-792, October.
    25. Pablo Fajgelbaum & Gene M. Grossman & Elhanan Helpman, 2015. "A Linder Hypothesis for Foreign Direct Investment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 82(1), pages 83-121.
    26. David Hummels & Alexandre Skiba, 2004. "Shipping the Good Apples Out? An Empirical Confirmation of the Alchian-Allen Conjecture," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(6), pages 1384-1402, December.
    27. Vanessa Alvariez & Michele Fioretti & Ayumu Ken Kikkawa & Monica Morlacco, 2022. "Two-Sided Market Power in Firm-to-Firm Trade," Working Papers hal-03795736, HAL.
    28. Krugman, Paul, 1991. "Increasing Returns and Economic Geography," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 483-499, June.
    29. Lorenczik, Stefan & Malischek, Raimund & Trüby, Johannes, 2017. "Modeling strategic investment decisions in spatial markets," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 256(2), pages 605-618.
    30. Ebina, Takeshi & Matsushima, Noriaki & Nishide, Katsumasa, 2022. "Demand uncertainty, product differentiation, and entry timing under spatial competition," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 303(1), pages 286-297.
    31. Shapley, Lloyd S & Shubik, Martin, 1977. "Trade Using One Commodity as a Means of Payment," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(5), pages 937-968, October.
    32. Goenka, Aditya & Kelly, David L. & Spear, Stephen E., 1998. "Endogenous Strategic Business Cycles," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 97-125, July.
    33. Dornbusch, Rudiger & Fischer, Stanley & Samuelson, Paul A, 1977. "Comparative Advantage, Trade, and Payments in a Ricardian Model with a Continuum of Goods," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(5), pages 823-839, December.
    34. J. Gregory Sidak, 2009. "Patent Holdup And Oligopsonistic Collusion In Standard-Setting Organizations," Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 5(1), pages 123-188.
    35. Helpman, Elhanan, 1987. "Imperfect competition and international trade: Evidence from fourteen industrial countries," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 62-81, March.
    36. Brander, James A., 1981. "Intra-industry trade in identical commodities," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, February.
    37. Carlo Perroni & Davide Suverato, 2023. "Skills scarcity and export intensity," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(2), pages 719-757, May.
    38. Krugman, Paul R., 1979. "Increasing returns, monopolistic competition, and international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 469-479, November.
    39. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, December.
    40. Martin Shubik, 2002. "Game Theory and Operations Research: Some Musings 50 Years Later," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 50(1), pages 192-196, February.
    41. Marc J. Melitz, 2003. "The Impact of Trade on Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(6), pages 1695-1725, November.
    42. Waseem Toraubally, 2017. "Strategic Market Games and Ricardo," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(4), pages 2517-2525.
    43. Robert C. Feenstra, 2015. "Advanced International Trade: Theory and Evidence Second Edition," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 2, number 10615.
    44. Marc J. Melitz & Gianmarco I. P. Ottaviano, 2008. "Market Size, Trade, and Productivity (DOI:10.111/j.1467-937x.2007.00463.x)," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 75(3), pages 985-985.
    45. Juan Carlos Hallak, 2010. "A Product-Quality View of the Linder Hypothesis," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(3), pages 453-466, August.
    46. Powers, Michael R. & Shubik, Martin, 1998. "On the tradeoff between the law of large numbers and oligopoly in insurance," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 141-156, November.
    47. Lancaster, Kelvin, 1980. "Intra-industry trade under perfect monopolistic competition," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 151-175, May.
    48. Kitenge, Erick, 2021. "The Linder hypothesis during the globalization era," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    49. Robert C. Feenstra & John Romalis, 2014. "International Prices and Endogenous Quality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(2), pages 477-527.
    50. Ioannis Karatzas & Martin Shubik & William D. Sudderth, 1994. "Construction of Stationary Markov Equilibria in a Strategic Market Game," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 19(4), pages 975-1006, November.
    51. Gary Erickson & Robert Jacobson, 1992. "Gaining Comparative Advantage Through Discretionary Expenditures: The Returns to R&D and Advertising," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(9), pages 1264-1279, September.
    52. Toru Kikuchi & Koji Shimomura & Dao‐Zhi Zeng, 2008. "On Chamberlinian‐Ricardian Trade Patterns," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(2), pages 285-292, May.
    53. Jeon, Haejun & Nishihara, Michi, 2018. "Optimal patent policy in the presence of vertical separation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 270(2), pages 682-697.
    54. Arnaud Costinot & Dave Donaldson & Ivana Komunjer, 2012. "What Goods Do Countries Trade? A Quantitative Exploration of Ricardo's Ideas," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(2), pages 581-608.
    55. Krugman, Paul R, 1981. "Intraindustry Specialization and the Gains from Trade," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(5), pages 959-973, October.
    56. Toraubally, Waseem A., 2018. "Large market games, the law of one price, and market structure," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 13-26.
    57. Pol Antràs, 2015. "Global Production: Firms, Contracts, and Trade Structure," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10613.
    58. Leonidas C. Koutsougeras & Claudia Meo, 2018. "An asymptotic analysis of strategic behavior for exchange economies," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 66(2), pages 301-325, August.
    59. Charalambos D. Aliprantis & Kim C. Border, 2006. "Infinite Dimensional Analysis," Springer Books, Springer, edition 0, number 978-3-540-29587-7, June.
    60. Jonathan Eaton & Samuel Kortum, 2002. "Technology, Geography, and Trade," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(5), pages 1741-1779, September.
    61. BEWLEY, Truman F., 1972. "Existence of equilibria in economies with infinitely many commodities," LIDAM Reprints CORE 122, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Gu, Wei & Liu, Yajin & Song, Yanan & Shang, Jennifer & Cheng, T.C.E., 2024. "The impact of retailer regret in two-stage supply chains: Various structures and buyer power," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 319(2), pages 587-599.
    2. Toraubally, Waseem A., 2024. "Quantity competition in Hotellings linear city," CRETA Online Discussion Paper Series 87, Centre for Research in Economic Theory and its Applications CRETA.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Melitz, Marc J. & Redding, Stephen J., 2014. "Heterogeneous Firms and Trade," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 1-54, Elsevier.
    2. Toraubally, Waseem A., 2022. "Strategic trading and Ricardian comparative advantage," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 428-447.
    3. Costinot, Arnaud & Rodríguez-Clare, Andrés, 2014. "Trade Theory with Numbers: Quantifying the Consequences of Globalization," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 197-261, Elsevier.
    4. Head, Keith & Mayer, Thierry, 2014. "Gravity Equations: Workhorse,Toolkit, and Cookbook," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 131-195, Elsevier.
    5. Heiland, Inga & Kohler, Wilhelm, 2022. "Heterogeneous workers, trade, and migration," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    6. Parenti, Mathieu & Ushchev, Philip & Thisse, Jacques-François, 2017. "Toward a theory of monopolistic competition," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 86-115.
    7. Nocco, Antonella & Ottaviano, Gianmarco I.P. & Salto, Matteo, 2019. "Geography, competition, and optimal multilateral trade policy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 145-161.
    8. Feenstra, Robert C., 2018. "Restoring the product variety and pro-competitive gains from trade with heterogeneous firms and bounded productivity," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 16-27.
    9. Hsu, Wen-Tai & Lu, Yi & Wu, Guiying Laura, 2020. "Competition, markups, and gains from trade: A quantitative analysis of China between 1995 and 2004," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    10. Etro, Federico, 2017. "Research in economics and monopolistic competition," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(4), pages 645-649.
    11. Bastos, Paulo & Silva, Joana, 2010. "The quality of a firm's exports: Where you export to matters," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 99-111, November.
    12. Lugovskyy, Volodymyr & Skiba, Alexandre, 2015. "How geography affects quality," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 156-180.
    13. Chen, Natalie & Juvenal, Luciana, 2022. "Markups, quality, and trade costs," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    14. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen & Stephen J. Redding & Peter K. Schott, 2018. "Global Firms," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(2), pages 565-619, June.
    15. Behrens, Kristian & Mion, Giordano & Murata, Yasusada & Suedekum, Jens, 2017. "Spatial frictions," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 40-70.
    16. Raphael Auer, 2009. "Product Heterogeneity, Within-Industry Trade Patterns, and the Home Bias of Consumption?," Working Papers 09.05, Swiss National Bank, Study Center Gerzensee.
    17. Armando Garcia Pires, 2012. "International trade and competitiveness," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 50(3), pages 727-763, August.
    18. Carlo Perroni & Davide Suverato, 2023. "Skills scarcity and export intensity," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(2), pages 719-757, May.
    19. Federico J. Diez & Jesse Mora & Alan C. Spearot, 2016. "Firms in international trade," Working Papers 16-25, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    20. Heid, Benedikt & Stähler, Frank, 2024. "Structural gravity and the gains from trade under imperfect competition: Quantifying the effects of the European Single Market," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).

    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:eee:ejores:v:311:y:2023:i:3:p:1188-1201. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eor .

    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.