Consider the following pre-trade data for Home in a Heckscher-Ohlin model with two goods (wine and cheese) and two factors (capital and Labour).
aKC =5 hours per kg (unit of capital requirement in cheese)
aKW =10 hours per litre (unit of capital requirement in wine)
aLC =15 hours per kg (unit of labour requirement in cheese)
aLW =20 hours per litre (unit of labour requirement in wine)
PC =$80 (price of cheese)
PW =$110 (price of wine)
a. Solve for equilibrium pre-trade wage and rental rate, remembering that due to the perfect competition problem and zero economic profit, P= MC, or P = aK . r + aL .w, in each sector, where aK and aL are capital and labour requirement in their respective sector, and w and r represent the cost of labour and capital per hour.
b. Now suppose that a comparison with the rest of the world has revealed that Home has a comparative disadvantage in cheese so that when trade starts the price of cheese in Home falls from $80 to $75. Solve for the post -trade equilibrium wage and rental rates.
c. What has been the impact of trade on the real return to the factors of production? Does your answer corroborate the Stolper- Samuleson theorem? Why?