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Comparative Advantage And The Equilibrium Rate Of Unemployment, Hian Teck Hoon

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper develops a two-country Heckscher-Ohlin model with endogenous equilibrium involuntary unemployment to examine the question: What is the effect of free trade on the equilibrium rates of unemployment in the labor abundant and labor-scarce countries? It is shown that free trade leads to a decline in the equilibrium rate of unemployment in the labor-abundant country but to a rise in unemployment in the labor-scarce country.