Efficiency Gain of International Trade

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In evaluating the efficiency gain of international trade, we are concerned about the entire country or community, and thus encounter a more complicated situation with several individuals making up the entire country. Answer these questions (provide graphs if you want):

What is meant by the community indifference curve?

The community indifference curve shows the various combinations of two commodities which yield the same level of satisfaction or utility to a community or nation. It is intended to represent the preferences of a country as a whole and is a convenient tool for deriving quantities of trade in a two-good model. The slope of a curve at any point gives the marginal rate of substitution or the amount of a commodity which a nation is willing to give up to obtain an additional unit of another commodity. The community indifference curve can also be used to show how international trade increases community welfare.

Can these curves intersect one another? Show.

Yes. Community indifference curves can intersect because the indifference map of a country is linked to a particular income distribution within that country. If the income distribution is different, then there is a different community indifference map, and the curves of the new map may intersect those of the previous map. This is usually what happens when a country opens up or expands trade.

What are assumptions that one needs to make in order to come up with non-intersecting community indifference curves?

Non-intersecting community indifference curves are supposed to exist if both of the following assumptions are met:

The utility functions for the individuals are homogenous and;

Either (a) the utility functions are identical or (b) the distri...

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... the other good, thus resulting in gains from trade.

If there is trade in factors but no trade in goods, the first two assumptions listed above still apply. Assuming that both countries are able to produce the same pair of commodities, the third equation changes to balance in trade of factors of production (instead of goods) and the equilibrium prices obtained will be factor prices. Thus, the assumption that “the value of what a country sells on world markets is equal to the value of what it buys” should still hold.

Works Cited

Cherunilam, F. (2008). International Economics. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Education.

Markusen, J. R., Melvin, J. R., Kaempfer, W. H., & Maskus, K. E. (1995). International Trade: Theory and Evidence. USA: McGraw-Hill, Inc.

Salvatore, D. (1984). Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems of International Economics. USA: McGraw-Hill, Inc.

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