CHAPTER 7GROWTH AND TRADEObjectives of the ChapterIn this chapter, the Heckscher-Ohlin model of international trade is extended to include growth in the endowment of a country’s f actors of production and technological improvements. The impact of economic growth on international trade will depend on whether the growth is balanced in all goods or is biased toward one good, and on whether the country experiencing growth is large or small.An interesting result emerges from the interaction of growth and international trade: g rowth in one’s own country may not be an unmitigated blessing. First, as the Rybczynski theorem shows, growth in one sector can cause production in non-growing sectors to decline. Second, under certain conditions, export-biased growth may lead to an adverse terms of trade effect, and national well-being may actually decline. After reading Chapter 7 you should be able to1. show how trade patterns are influenced by the source of economic growth.2. show how economic growth can change the production patterns of a country.3. discuss how growth affects the terms of trade and the well-being of the country experiencing it.4. relate the rate of growth in a country to its openness to international trade.Important ConceptsDutch disease: A famous example of the phenomenon described by the Rybczynskitheorem. The term was used to describe a problem experienced bythe Netherlands, in which the discovery of new natural gas fieldswas thought to have led to a decline in the production ofmanufactured goods.Immiserizing growth: In a large trading country which is heavily dependent on trade,growth in the export sector may lead to a deterioration in its terms oftrade large enough to reduce the country’s welfare.Product cycle hypothesis: Predicts that as the technology of a product becomes morestandardized and static, production shifts from high-skilled laborcountries to countries abundant in low-cost, low-skilled labor. Rybczynski theorem: In a two-product world with constant prices, the growth of one factorof production results in a decrease in the output of the product thatdoes not use this factor intensively.Small/large country assumption: A small country has no impact on international commodity prices; alarge country can have an impact on international prices.Warm-up QuestionsTrue or False? Explain.1. T / F A country which is “large” may improve its terms of trade by investing in the growth ofthe import-competing sector rather than in the export sector.2. T / F Growth in a small country, by definition, will leave the terms of trade unchanged.3. T / F Adolescence is an example of “immiserizing growth.”4. T / F Growth in a country’s factors of production always makes the country more self-sufficient and less reliant on international trade.5. T / F A country that isolates itself from the rest of the world may doom its citizens to a lowerstandard of living.Multiple Choice1. “Rapid accumulation of new capital in a fast-growing trading country can make the countryimport more natural res ources.” This statement is implied by theA. Heckscher-Ohlin theorem.B. Stolper-Samuelson theorem.C. Rybczynski theorem.D. factor price equalization theorem.2. According to trade theory, if a nation has a comparative advantage in a capital-intensivelyproduced good, and the rate of growth of capital is greater than the rate of growth of other inputs(e.g., labor), the pattern of growth which results will beA. import-replacing.B. neutral as between capital-intensive and other products.C. export-expanding.D. none of the above.3. A necessary condition for immiserizing growth is that theA. c ountry’s growth is biased toward the export sector.B. f oreign demand for the country’s export is price elastic.C. c ountry’s consumption pref erences are heavily biased in favor of the export good.D. l evel of trade is not a significant part of the country’s economy.4.The Heckscher-Ohlin theory successfully explains theA. product-innovation process and the location of industries in countries other than the UnitedStates.B. rising importance of a country both exporting and importing the same product.C. rising trade between the United States and Canada because both are similar in factorendowments.D. trade patterns between industrialized countries and the developing countries, which differ infactor endowments. 5.Which of the following is most likely to undergo a product cycle? A. Rice.B. Television sets.C. Crude oil.D. Minerals.Problems1. Back to our countries of Leinster and Saxony. PPCs for each of the countries are drawn on the following graph with the free trade price of 0.25 telephones/loaf indicated. (From this question forward, you should consider Leinster a “large country” and Saxony a “small country.”)Figure 7.1LeinsterT e l e p h o n e sSuppose that Saxony discovers a way of irrigating previously arid land.a. What would you expect to happen to the volume of trade between Leinster and Saxony?b. What would happen to the level of economic well-being in Saxony as a result of the growth itexperienced after the expansion of irrigation?Suppose, instead, that a plague wipes out 20 percent of Leinster’s labor force.c. What would you expect to happen to the volume of trade between Leinster and Saxony?d. What would happen to the level of economic well-being in Leinster after the populationdecline?2. Assume that Canada exports land-intensive wheat and imports cloth that uses unskilled laborintensively, even though Canada does make some cloth at home. If a major breakthrough inbiotechnology doubles Canada’s ability to grow wheat, and if the extra wheat supply lowers the world price of wheat (in yards of cloth per bushel of wheat),a. will this set of events make Canada better off or worse off as a nation?b. will this set of events make the rest of the world better off or worse off?c. will these events raise or lower the real wage rate of unskilled Canadian laborers?If, instead, the rest of the world’s labor supply doubles while i ts land supply remains the same,d. will this event and its effects make Canada better off or worse off as a nation?3. The trade minister for Saxony is a nationalist, a mercantilist, an isolationist, and nearly everyother kind of “ist” you can think of. She has sugge sted that Saxony close its doors to telephone imports from Leinster. Focusing on the role of technology in economic growth, try to talk her out of her anti-import stance.4. Suppose Kazakhstan is land- and unskilled-labor abundant and capital- and skilled-labor scarce.a. According to the Heckscher-Ohlin model, what type of goods will Kazakhstan export, andwhat type will it import?b. Suppose that Kazakhstan wants to achieve “import replacing” growth. What change in itsendowments would achieve this growth? If Kazakhstan were large, what would be the effecton its terms of trade?5. Some oil executives are urging Congress to open up the wildlife preserves in the Arctic region ofAlaska to oil exploration. If, indeed, huge new oil reserves are discovered there,a. what is likely to be the impact on American imports of oil?b. what is likely to be the impact on national welfare?c. could the United States ult imately suffer from “the Dutch disease?”d. in broad terms, what other costs might the country face?6. For decades the U.S. government has tried to boost the country’s savings rate. Since the U.S. isan exporter of capital-intensive goods, explain how increased saving may affect economicgrowth.Discussion Topics1. If growth can make a country worse off, why is it allowed to happen?2. Are the developed countries or the developing countries more prone to experiencingimmiserizing growth?3. What “new” goods in the U.S. do you foresee going through the product cycle in the near future?What countries do you think will ultimately end up producing these goods?。