Ian Wooton

Preferential trading agreements: An investigation

Abstract A three-country general equilibrium model of international trade in an arbitrary number of goods is constructed and the welfare effects of the formation of a preferential trading club (e.g. customs union, free trade area) are analyzed.

International factor movements in the presence of a fixed factor

Abstract To the basic model of international factor mobility is added a third, immobile factor. Unlike the basic model, the factor flows that result from a policy of free mobility are now uniquely determined. Additionally, a large variety of privately optimal national policies is predicted, each dependent upon the countrys endowment pattern and the fiscal instruments available to it. Several of the predicted policies, e.g. subsidies paid to migrant factors and simultaneous restrictions on the export of both factors, are incompatible with the basic model.

The choice between international labour and capital mobility in a dynamic model of North-South trade

Abstract In a dynamic model of trade between two regions producing different products and having dissimilar labour market structures, the impact of movements of capital and labour is examined. It is shown that mobility of either factor of production benefits the full-employment, Solow-type economy. In contrast, an inflow of capital is detrimental to a labour-surplus, Lewis-type economy while labour outflow is beneficial.

Tariff policy and equilibrium growth in the world economy

Abstract The potential for each regions use of commercial policy in a dynamic asymmetric North-South model is examined. The North is the producer of a good which may be consumed or invested, manufactured in a Solow-type economy. The South produces consumer goods in a Lewis labor-surplus economy. It is shown that, although a country with monopoly power in trade may improve its welfare in the short run through imposing a tariff, such a policy might ultimately be detrimental.

International Trade and the Acquisition of Skills

This article incorporates human-capital accumulation into the two-sector, general-equilibrium model of international trade. Agents have the choice of using their endowment of capital in the production of final consumption goods or in increasing their education level. Thus, there is the potential for intertemporal substitution of human capital for physical capital in the production of goods. Nonetheless, the pattern of trade between two countries is still shown to depend upon their relative endowments of unskilled labor and capital. The comparative effectiveness of various instruments in achieving non-economic objectives is also discussed.