هزینه های تعدیل نامتقارن در مدل های ساده تعادل عمومی

This paper demonstrates that the introduction of asymmetric adjustment costs in a simple general equilibrium framework establishes a meaningful link between factor price determination and output determination, breaking the analytically convenient dichotomy of the Heckscher–Ohlin–Samuelson model. The possibility of trade between seemingly similar countries that differ in their adjustment technologies is visited.

The role of adjustment costs in a general equilibrium model is widely recognized.1A number of econometric studies have also provided estimates of adjustment costs.2 However, there is no compelling reason to believe that such adjustment costs will be uniform across sectors.3This paper demonstrates that the introduction of asymmetric adjustment costs in an otherwise Heckscher–Ohlin–Samuelson (H–O–S) model establishes a meaningful link between factor price determination and output determination, breaking the analytically convenient dichotomy. In consequence, the possibility of the emergence of a trading equilibrium between two economies that differ in their adjustment technologies but are otherwise identical is demonstrated. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents a diagrammatic analysis of the effects of asymmetric adjustment costs. It provides a useful taxonomy for the formal model presented in Section 3. Section 4 concludes.

This paper demonstrates that the introduction of asymmetric adjustment costs in a simple general equilibrium framework establishes a meaningful link between factor price determination and output determination, breaking the analytically convenient dichotomy of the H–O–S model. It is shown that in a two-sector model an expansion in the endowment of a factor (capital) can lead to an expansion, contraction or no change in the output of either sector depending on the adjustment technology. The possibility of a trading equilibrium between two economies that differ in their adjustment technologies but are otherwise identical is demonstrated. Finally, innumerous attempts, in a vast pool of empirical literature, are continuously made to test (weak) implications of the H–O–S theory. Most studies report that the implications are spectacularly at odds with the description of international data.11By bringing out the implications of asymmetric adjustment costs this paper points to the importance of allowing sector-specific adjustment costs in tests of the implications of the H–O–S theory.