Chapter 4

Specific Factors
and Income
Distribution

•
 Chapter Organization

• Introduction
• The Specific Factors Model
• International Trade in the Specific Factors
Model
• Income Distribution and the Gains from
Trade
• Political Economy of Trade: A Preliminary
View
• International Labor Mobility
• Summary
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 Introduction

• If trade is so good for the economy, why is

there such opposition?
• Two main reasons why international trade
has strong effects on the distribution of
income within a country:
– Resources cannot move immediately or costlessly
from one industry to another.
– Industries differ in the factors of production they
demand.

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 The Specific Factors Model

• The specific factors model allows

trade to affect income distribution.
• Assumptions of the model:
– Two goods, cloth and food.
– Three factors of production: labor (L), capital
(K) and land (T for terrain).
– Perfect competition prevails in all markets.

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 The Specific Factors Model
(cont.)
– Cloth produced using capital and labor (but not
land).
– Food produced using land and labor (but not
capital).
– Labor is a mobile factor that can move between
sectors.
– Land and capital are both specific factors used
only in the production of one good.

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 The Specific Factors Model
(cont.)
• How much of each good does the economy
produce?
• The production function for cloth gives the
quantity of cloth that can be produced given
any input of capital and labor:
QC = QC (K, LC) (4-1)

– QC is the output of cloth

– K is the capital stock
– LC is the labor force employed in cloth

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 The Specific Factors Model
(cont.)
• The production function for food gives the
quantity of food that can be produced given
any input of land and labor:

QF = QF (T, LF) (4-2)

– QF is the output of food

– T is the supply of land
– LF is the labor force employed in food

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 Production Possibilities

• How does the economy s mix of output

change as labor is shifted from one sector to
the other?
• When labor moves from food to cloth, food
production falls while output of cloth rises.
• Figure 4-1 illustrates the production function
for cloth.

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 Fig. 4-1: The Production Function
for Cloth

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 Production Possibilities (cont.)

• The shape of the production function reflects

the law of diminishing marginal returns.

– Adding one worker to the production process

(without increasing the amount of capital) means
that each worker has less capital to work with.

– Therefore, each additional unit of labor adds less

output than the last.

• Figure 4-2 shows the marginal product of

labor, which is the increase in output that
corresponds to an extra unit of labor.

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 Fig. 4-2: The Marginal Product of
Labor

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 Production Possibilities (cont.)

• For the economy as a whole, the total labor

employed in cloth and food must equal the total
labor supply:
LC + LF = L (4-3)

• Use these equations to derive the production

possibilities frontier of the economy.

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 Production Possibilities (cont.)

• Use a four-quadrant diagram to construct

production possibilities frontier in Figure 4-3.

– Lower left quadrant indicates the allocation of labor.

– Lower right quadrant shows the production function for
cloth from Figure 4-1.
– Upper left quadrant shows the corresponding production
function for food.
– Upper right quadrant indicates the combinations of cloth
and food that can be produced.

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 Fig. 4-3: The Production Possibility
Frontier in the Specific Factors Model

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 Production Possibilities (cont.)

• Why is the production possibilities frontier

curved?
– Diminishing returns to labor in each sector cause
the opportunity cost to rise when an economy
produces more of a good.
– Opportunity cost of cloth in terms of food is the
slope of the production possibilities frontier – the
slope becomes steeper as an economy produces
more cloth.

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 Production Possibilities (cont.)

• Opportunity cost of producing one more

yard of cloth is MPLF/MPLC pounds of food.
– To produce one more yard of cloth, you need 1/
MPLC hours of labor.
– To free up one hour of labor, you must reduce
output of food by MPLF pounds.
– To produce less food and more cloth, employ less
in food and more in cloth.
• The marginal product of labor in food rises and the
marginal product of labor in cloth falls, so MPLF/MPLC
rises.

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 Prices, Wages, and Labor
Allocation

• How much labor is employed in each

sector?
– Need to look at supply and demand in the
labor market.
• Demand for labor:
– In each sector, employers will maximize
profits by demanding labor up to the point
where the value produced by an additional
hour equals the marginal cost of employing a
worker for that hour.

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 Prices, Wages, and Labor
Allocation (cont.)

• The demand curve for labor in the cloth

sector:
MPLC x PC = w (4-4)
– The wage equals the value of the marginal
product of labor in manufacturing.

• The demand curve for labor in the food

sector:
MPLF x PF = w (4-5)
– The wage equals the value of the marginal
product of labor in food.

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 Prices, Wages, and Labor
Allocation (cont.)

• Figure 4-4 represents labor demand in the

two sectors.
• The demand for labor in the cloth sector is
MPLC from Figure 4-2 multiplied by PC.
• The demand for labor in the food sector is
measured from the right.
• The horizontal axis represents the total
labor supply L.

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 Prices, Wages, and Labor
Allocation (cont.)
• The two sectors must pay the same wage because
labor can move between sectors.
• If the wage were higher in the cloth sector, workers
would move from making food to making cloth until
the wages become equal.
– Or if the wage were higher in the food sector, workers
would move in the other direction.
• Where the labor demand curves intersect gives the
equilibrium wage and allocation of labor between
the two sectors.

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 Fig. 4-4: The Allocation of Labor

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 Prices, Wages, and Labor
Allocation (cont.)

• At the production point, the production

possibility frontier must be tangent to a line
whose slope is minus the price of cloth
divided by that of food.
• Relationship between relative prices and
output:
-MPLF/MPLC = -PC/PF (4-6)

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 Fig. 4-5: Production in the
Specific Factors Model

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 Prices, Wages, and Labor
Allocation (cont.)

• What happens to the allocation of labor and

the distribution of income when the prices of
food and cloth change?
• Two cases:
1. An equal proportional change in prices
2. A change in relative prices

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 Prices, Wages, and Labor
Allocation (cont.)

• When both prices change in the same

proportion, no real changes occur.
– The wage rate (w) rises in the same proportion
as the prices, so real wages (i.e., the ratios of
the wage rate to the prices of goods) are
unaffected.
– The real incomes of capital owners and
landowners also remain the same.

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 Fig. 4-6: An Equal-Proportional Increase in
the Prices of Cloth and Food

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 Prices, Wages, and Labor
Allocation (cont.)

• When only PC rises, labor shifts from the

food sector to the cloth sector and the
output of cloth rises while that of food falls.
• The wage rate (w) does not rise as much as
PC since cloth employment increases and
thus the marginal product of labor in that
sector falls.

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 Fig. 4-7: A Rise in the Price of
Cloth

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 Fig. 4-8: The Response of Output to a
Change in the Relative Price of Cloth

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 Fig. 4-9: Determination of
Relative Prices

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 Prices, Wages, and Labor
Allocation (cont.)

• Relative Prices and the Distribution of

Income
– Suppose that PC increases by 10%. Then,
the wage would rise by less than 10%.
• What is the economic effect of this price
increase on the incomes of the following
three groups?
– Workers, owners of capital, and owners of
land

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 Prices, Wages, and Labor
Allocation (cont.)

• Owners of capital are definitely better off.

• Landowners are definitely worse off.
• Workers: cannot say whether workers are
better or worse off:
– Depends on the relative importance of cloth and
food in workers consumption.

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 International Trade in the
Specific Factors Model
• Trade and Relative Prices
– The relative price of cloth prior to trade is
determined by the intersection of the economy s
relative supply of cloth and its relative demand.
– Free trade relative price of cloth is determined by
the intersection of world relative supply of cloth
and world relative demand.
– Opening up to trade increases the relative price
of cloth in an economy whose relative supply of
cloth is larger than for the world as a whole.

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 Fig. 4-10: Trade and Relative
Prices

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 International Trade in the
Specific Factors Model (cont.)

• Gains from trade

– Without trade, the economy s output of a good
must equal its consumption.
– International trade allows the mix of cloth and
food consumed to differ from the mix produced.
– The country cannot spend more than it earns:
PC x DC + PF x DF = PC x QC +PF x QF

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 International Trade in the
Specific Factors Model (cont.)

• The economy as a whole gains from trade.

– It imports an amount of food equal to the
relative price of cloth times the amount of cloth
exported:
DF - QF = (PC / PF) x (QC – DC )
– It is able to afford amounts of cloth and food that
the country is not able to produce itself.
– The budget constraint with trade lies above the
production possibilities frontier in Figure 4-11.

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 Fig. 4-11: Budget Constraint for a Trading
Economy and Gains from Trade

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 Income Distribution and Trade
Politics

• International trade shifts the relative price

of cloth to food, so factor prices change.
• Trade benefits the factor that is specific to
the export sector of each country, but hurts
the factor that is specific to the import-
competing sectors.
• Trade has ambiguous effects on mobile
factors.

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 Income Distribution and Trade
Politics (cont.)

• Trade benefits a country by expanding

choices.
– Possible to redistribute income so that everyone
gains from trade.
– Those who gain from trade could compensate
those who lose and still be better off themselves.
– That everyone could gain from trade does not
mean that they actually do – redistribution
usually hard to implement.

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 Income Distribution and Trade
Politics (cont.)

• Trade often produces losers as well as

winners.
• Optimal trade policy must weigh one group s
gain against another s loss.
– Some groups may need special treatment
because they are already relatively poor (e.g.,
shoe and garment workers in the United States).
• Most economists strongly favor free trade.

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 Income Distribution and Trade
Politics (cont.)

• Typically, those who gain from trade are a

much less concentrated, informed, and
organized group than those who lose.
– Example: Consumers and producers in the U.S.
sugar industry, respectively
• Governments usually provide a safety net
of income support to cushion the losses to
groups hurt by trade (or other changes).

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 Trade and Unemployment

• Trade shifts jobs from import-competing to

export sector.
– Process not instantaneous – some workers will
be unemployed as they look for new jobs.
• How much unemployment can be traced
back to trade?
– From 2001 to 2010, only about 2% of
involuntary displacements stemmed from import
competition or plants moved overseas.

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 Trade and Unemployment (cont.)

• Figure 4-12 shows that there is no obvious

correlation between unemployment rate and
imports relative to GDP for the U.S.
– Unemployment is primarily a macroeconomic
problem that rises during recessions.
– The best way to reduce unemployment is by
adopting macroeconomic policies to help the
economy recover, not by adopting trade
protection.

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 Fig. 4-12: Unemployment and Import
Penetration in the United States

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 International Labor Mobility

• Movements in factors of production include

– labor migration
– the transfer of financial assets through
international borrowing and lending
– transactions of multinational corporations
involving direct ownership of foreign firms
• Like movements of goods and services
(trade), movements of factors of production
are politically sensitive and are often
restricted.

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 International Labor Mobility
(cont.)

• Why does labor migrate and what effects does

labor migration cause?
• Workers migrate to wherever wages are highest.
• Consider movement of labor across countries
instead of across sectors.
• Suppose two countries produce one non-traded
good (food) using two factors of production:
– Land cannot move across countries but labor can.

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 International Labor Mobility
(cont.)

• Figure 4-13 finds the equilibrium wage and labor

allocation with migration across countries.
– Similar to how Figure 4-4 determined the equilibrium
allocation of labor between sectors.

• Start with OL1 workers in Home earning a lower real

wage (point C) than the L1O* workers in Foreign
(point B).
– Lower wage due to less land per worker (lower
productivity).

• Workers in the home country want to migrate to the

foreign country where they can earn more.

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 International Labor Mobility
(cont.)
• If no obstacles to labor migration exist, workers
move from Home to Foreign until the purchasing
power of wages is equal across countries (point A),
with OL2 workers in Home and L2O* workers in
Foreign.
– Emigration from Home decreases the supply of labor and
raises real wage of the workers who remain there.
• Workers who start in the Home country earn more due to
emigration regardless if they are among those who leave.
– Immigration into Foreign increases the supply of labor and
decreases the real wage there.
• Wages do not actually equalize, due to barriers to
migration such as policies restricting immigration
and natural reluctance to move.
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 Fig. 4-13: Causes and Effects of
International Labor Mobility

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 International Labor Mobility
(cont.)
• Labor migration increases world output.
– The value of foreign output rises by the area under its MPL*
curve from L1 to L2
– The value of domestic output falls by the area under its
MPL curve from L2 to L1
– World output rises because labor moves to where it is
more productive (where wages are higher).
– The value of world output is maximized when the marginal
productivity of labor is the same across countries.

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 International Labor Mobility
(cont.)

• Workers initially in Home benefit while

workers in Foreign are hurt by inflows of
other workers.
– Landowners in Foreign gain from the inflow of
workers decreasing real wages and increasing
output.
– Landowners in Home are hurt by the outflow of
workers increasing real wages and decreasing
output.

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 International Labor Mobility
(cont.)
• Does migration lead to the wage changes
predicted?
• Table 4-1 shows that real wages in 1870 were
much higher in destination countries than in origin
countries.
• Up until the eve of World War I in 1913, wages rose
faster in origin countries than in destination
countries (except Canada).
• Migration moved the world toward more equalized
wages.

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 Table 4-1

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 International Labor Mobility
(cont.)
• In the early 20th century, share of immigrants in
the U.S. increased dramatically.
– Vast immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe.

• Tight restrictions on immigration imposed in the

1920s.
– Immigrants were a minor force in the U.S. by the 1960s.

• New wave of immigration began around 1970.

– Mostly from Latin America and Asia.

• As of 2012, 16.1% of the U.S. labor force is

foreign-born.

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 Fig. 4-14: Foreign-Born Population as
a Percentage of the U.S. Population

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 Immigration and the U.S.
Economy

• The largest increase in recent immigration

occurred among workers with the lowest
education levels, making less educated
workers more abundant.
– possibly reduced wages for native-born workers
with low education levels while raising wages for
the more educated
– widening wage gap between less educated
workers and highly educated workers.

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 Fig. 4-15: Foreign-Born and Total U.S.
Population Over 25 Years Old by Educational
Attainment

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 Summary

1. International trade often has strong effects on

the distribution of income within countries -
produces losers as well as winners.
2. Income distribution effects arise for two reasons:
– Factors of production cannot move costlessly and
quickly from one industry to another.
– Changes in an economy s output mix have differential
effects on the demand for different factors of
production.

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 Summary (cont.)

3. International trade affects the distribution of

income in the specific factors model.
– Factors specific to export sectors in each country gain
from trade, while factors specific to import-competing
sectors lose.
– Mobile factors that can work in either sector may either
gain or lose.

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 Summary (cont.)

4. Trade nonetheless produces overall gains in the

sense that those who gain could in principle
compensate those who lose while still remaining
better off than before.
5. Most economists would prefer to address the
problem of income distribution directly, rather
than by restricting trade.
6. Those hurt by trade are often better organized
than those who gain, causing trade restrictions to
be adopted.

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 Summary (cont.)

7. Labor migrates to countries with higher labor

productivity and higher real wages, where labor is
scarce.
– Real wages fall due to immigration and rise due to
emigration.
– World output increases.

8. Real wages across countries are far from equal

due to differences in technology and due to
immigration barriers.

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 Chapter 4

Appendix:
Further Details on
Specific Factors

•
 Fig. 4A-1: Showing that Output Is
Equal to the Area under the Marginal
Product Curve

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 Fig. 4A-2: The Distribution of
Income within the Cloth Sector

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 Fig. 4A-3: A Rise in PC Benefits
the Owners of Capital

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 Fig. 4A-4: A Rise in PC Hurts
Landowners

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