How Robust Are Sign and Rank Order Tests of the Heckscher-Ohlin-Vanek Theorem?

Wilhelm Kohler

Oxford Economic Papers, 1991, vol. 43, issue 1, 158-71

Abstract: This paper draws attention to a widely neglected problem of arbitrariness with empirical tests of rank order and sign propositions derived from the Heckscher-Ohlin-Vanek (HOV) model of the factor content of international trade. The paper concentrates on four different rank order and two different sign propositions of the HOV model, which have all been the subject of empirical analysis in the literature, and it establishes conditions, under which a given data set will support one (rank order or sign) hypothesis while at the same time rejecting another. This will shed some light on the circumstances influencing the likelihood of such non-robust test results. The paper also examines the empirical relevance of this phenomenon of non-robustness using the multi-country data set published in Bowen, Leamer and Sveikauskas (1987). Copyright 1991 by Royal Economic Society.

Date: 1991
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0030-7653%2819910 ... 0.CO%3B2-H&origin=bc full text (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to JSTOR subscribers. See http://www.jstor.org for details.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:oxecpp:v:43:y:1991:i:1:p:158-71

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Oxford Economic Papers is currently edited by James Forder and Francis J. Teal

More articles in Oxford Economic Papers from Oxford University Press Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().