The Possibility of Factor Price Equalization, Revisited

Abstract

This paper derives a condition for factor price equalization (FPE) in a Heckscher-Ohlin model with many goods, factors, and countries. Using Dixit and Norman's integrated world economy (IWE), two sets, called lenses, are constructed: one spanned by the factor vectors used to produce goods in the IWE; the other spanned by the countries' factor endowments. If the factor-endowment lens ever passes outside the factor-use lens, then FPE is impossible. In this sense, therefore, FPE requires that factor endowments vary less across countries than factor intensities vary across industries.