Intensive Lecture: "Appraising Competitive International Trade Theory"
March 16, 2009
Professor Ronald W. Jones (University of Rochester) presented a lecture entitled “Appraising Competitive International Trade Theory” at Keio University on March 16, 2009. In international trade theory, the issue of whether the factors of production used by a given manufacturing sector can be utilized by other sectors has been discussed for many years. To begin with, Prof. Jones explained how sector-specific factors of production, that is factors of production that can be used in one sector but cannot be used in others, have been approached in traditional international trade theory. He then discussed the Heckscher-Ohlin model, which holds that all factors of production are transferable to other sectors, along with the significance of this model. Prof. Jones concluded his lecture by considering how these two opposing ways of thought can be reconciled in a single theoretical framework.