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Intra-Firm Specialization, Income Distribution, And International Trade, Haiwen Zhou

Economics Faculty Publications

The impact of international trade on a firm’s degree of specialization and income distribution is studied in a general equilibrium framework in which firms engage in oligopolistic competition. International trade increases a firm’s degree of specialization, but the number of goods a country produces may not change. Trade may lower the welfare of the scarce factor of production. Sufficient conditions for a country’s welfare to increase with trade are provided.