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Article
The Effects of Relative Country Size and Endowment Similarity in Influencing Trade Volume and Composition in General Equilibrium Monopolistically Competitive Markets
The International Trade Journal (1991)
  • Robert C. Shelburne, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Abstract
In order to explain two-way trade, the standard H-O model has recently been modified by assuming a market structure with monopolistic competition. The factors that affect the volume of total trade and its intra-industry component in the 2 x 2 model have been specified in these papers. This paper generalizes these results to the N-good, M-country case. Although endowment similarity increases the intra-industry component in the 2 x 2 case, this proposition does not strictly hold for bilateral trade in the N x M case. Similarity of relative income size (GNP) does increase intra-industry trade in the 2 x 2 case, but does not increase the intra-industry share as assumed by several authors. In the N x M case, similarity of relative income size does not affect the bilateral volume of intra-industry trade nor its intra-industry share. This article thus shows that ceteris paribus comparative static changes in income size in a 2-country model are not equivalent to changes in that variable across a cross-section of a multi-country model.
Keywords
  • Monopolistic Competition,
  • Trade Model,
  • Country Size,
  • Endowment Similarity,
  • Multi-country trade model,
  • gravity model
Disciplines
Publication Date
March, 1991
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/08853909108523720
Citation Information
Robert C. Shelburne. "The Effects of Relative Country Size and Endowment Similarity in Influencing Trade Volume and Composition in General Equilibrium Monopolistically Competitive Markets" The International Trade Journal Vol. 5 Iss. 3 (1991)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/robert_shelburne/24/