IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/rnd/arjebs/v2y2011i4p151-170.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Fragility of Comparative Advantage in Higher Dimensions: An Experimental Investigation

Author

Listed:
  • Baboo M Nowbutsing

Abstract

In this study, an experimental analysis of the fragility of the law of the comparative advantage in higher dimensions is performed. Noussair et al (1995) invoked a trading environment similar to the 2 x 2 Competitive Ricardian Model (CRM) and observed the law of comparative advantage. In this experiment, the same experimental setting is invoked however the number of goods and countries is increased. There were three countries and three goods, two countries were categorised as ‘intermediate’ comparative advantage while one as ‘extreme’ comparative advantage. However, the Jones (1961)’s criterion for optimal assignment was satisfied. The experimental findings reveal the following (1) both the autarky model and the competitive model are rejected as a representation of the data but the competitive model performs better than the autarky model (2) the CRM does not predict the production pattern (3) the CRM does not predict pattern of trade (4) output prices do not converge to the prediction of the theoretical model. Thus the results support the claim of Deardoff (2005).

Suggested Citation

  • Baboo M Nowbutsing, 2011. "Fragility of Comparative Advantage in Higher Dimensions: An Experimental Investigation," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 2(4), pages 151-170.
  • Handle: RePEc:rnd:arjebs:v:2:y:2011:i:4:p:151-170
    DOI: 10.22610/jebs.v2i4.233
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ojs.amhinternational.com/index.php/jebs/article/view/233/233
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://ojs.amhinternational.com/index.php/jebs/article/view/233
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22610/jebs.v2i4.233?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Parviz Asheghian & Reza Saidi, 1999. "Commodity Concentration and Export Earning Instability: The Case of Venezuela," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 17(4), pages 419-427, December.
    2. Vernon L. Smith, 1962. "An Experimental Study of Competitive Market Behavior," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 70(3), pages 322-322.
    3. Gjerstad, Steven & Dickhaut, John, 1998. "Price Formation in Double Auctions," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 1-29, January.
    4. Noussair, C.N. & Powell, O.R., 2008. "Peaks and Valleys : Experimental Asset Markets With Non-Monotonic Fundamentals," Discussion Paper 2008-49, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    5. Peng Lian & Charles R. Plott, 1998. "General equilibrium, markets, macroeconomics and money in a laboratory experimental environment," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 12(1), pages 21-75.
    6. Riedl, Arno & van Winden, Frans, 2001. "Does the Wage Tax System Cause Budget Deficits? A Macro-economic Experiment," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 109(3-4), pages 371-394, December.
    7. Plott, Charles R. & Gray, Peter, 1990. "The multiple unit double auction," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 245-258, March.
    8. Alan V Deardorff, 2011. "How Robust is Comparative Advantage?," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Robert M Stern (ed.), Comparative Advantage, Growth, And The Gains From Trade And Globalization A Festschrift in Honor of Alan V Deardorff, chapter 17, pages 183-195, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    9. Noussair, Charles & Plott, Charles & Riezman, Raymond, 2007. "Production, trade, prices, exchange rates and equilibration in large experimental economies," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 49-76, January.
    10. Noussair, C.N. & Plott, C. & Riezman, R., 2007. "Production, trade and exchange rates in large experimental economies," Other publications TiSEM 3bf683fe-0650-4e8a-8682-c, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    11. Ronald W. Jones, 1961. "Comparative Advantage and the Theory of Tariffs: A Multi-Country, Multi-Commodity Model," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 28(3), pages 161-175.
    12. Love, James, 1986. "Commodity concentration and export earnings instability : A shift from cross-section to time series analysis," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 239-248, December.
    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. Baboo M Nowbutsing, 2012. "Experiments in International Economics," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 4(2), pages 75-86.

    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. Noussair, C.N. & Pfajfar, D. & Zsiros, J., 2011. "Frictions, Persistence, and Central Bank Policy in an Experimental Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium Economy," Other publications TiSEM 1086a234-17a8-45d6-91d2-0, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    2. John Duffy, 2008. "Macroeconomics: A Survey of Laboratory Research," Working Paper 334, Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh, revised Jun 2014.
    3. Sean Crockett, 2013. "Price Dynamics In General Equilibrium Experiments," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 421-438, July.
    4. Jason Shachat & Zhenxuan Zhang, 2017. "The Hayek Hypothesis and Long‐run Competitive Equilibrium: An Experimental Investigation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(599), pages 199-228, February.
    5. C. Duke & L. Gangadharan, 2005. "Salinity in Water Markets : An ExperimentalInvestigation of the Sunraysia Salinity Levy, Victoria," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 950, The University of Melbourne.
    6. Steven Gjerstad, 2013. "Price dynamics in an exchange economy," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 52(2), pages 461-500, March.
    7. Edoardo Gaffeo & Mauro Gallegati & Umberto Gostoli, 2015. "An agent-based “proof of principle” for Walrasian macroeconomic theory," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 150-183, June.
    8. Fenig, Guidon & Mileva, Mariya & Petersen, Luba, 2018. "Deflating asset price bubbles with leverage constraints and monetary policy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 1-27.
    9. Guidon Fenig & Mariya Mileva & Luba Petersen, 2013. "Leave the bubble alone!: Deflating asset price bubbles in an experimental macroeconomy," Discussion Papers dp16-10, Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University, revised Aug 2016.
    10. Ortmann, Andreas, 2003. "Charles R. Plott's collected papers on the experimental foundations of economic and political science," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 555-575, August.
    11. Baboo M Nowbutsing, 2012. "Experiments in International Economics," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 4(2), pages 75-86.
    12. Guidon Fenig & Luba Petersen, 2017. "Distributing scarce jobs and output: experimental evidence on the dynamic effects of rationing," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 20(3), pages 707-735, September.
    13. Paul Brewer & Maria Huang & Brad Nelson & Charles Plott, 2002. "On the Behavioral Foundations of the Law of Supply and Demand: Human Convergence and Robot Randomness," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 5(3), pages 179-208, December.
    14. Tiziana Assenza & Te Bao & Cars Hommes & Domenico Massaro, 2014. "Experiments on Expectations in Macroeconomics and Finance," Research in Experimental Economics, in: Experiments in Macroeconomics, volume 17, pages 11-70, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    15. Omar Al-Ubaydli & John List, 2016. "Field Experiments in Markets," Artefactual Field Experiments j0002, The Field Experiments Website.
    16. Davis, Douglas & Korenok, Oleg, 2011. "Nominal shocks in monopolistically competitive markets: An experiment," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(6), pages 578-589.
    17. Itzhak Rasooly, 2022. "Competitive equilibrium and the double auction," Economics Series Working Papers 974, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    18. Kirchsteiger, Georg & Niederle, Muriel & Potters, Jan, 2005. "Endogenizing market institutions: An experimental approach," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(7), pages 1827-1853, October.
    19. Palan, Stefan, 2010. "Digital options and efficiency in experimental asset markets," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 75(3), pages 506-522, September.
    20. Sabiou M. Inoua & Vernon L. Smith, 2022. "Perishable goods versus re-tradable assets: A theoretical reappraisal of a fundamental dichotomy," Chapters, in: Sascha Füllbrunn & Ernan Haruvy (ed.), Handbook of Experimental Finance, chapter 15, pages 162-171, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    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:rnd:arjebs:v:2:y:2011:i:4:p:151-170. 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: Muhammad Tayyab (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://ojs.amhinternational.com/index.php/jebs .

    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.