China's trade reform: Verdoorn's Law married to Adam Smith's "vent for surplus" principle

Abstract

The premise is that, as a member of the World Trade Organization, China's industrial trade practices are consistent with the principle of specialization in accordance with the principle of comparative advantage. Yet the trade reforms that were undertaken since the end of the Cultural Revolution (1976) have made direct foreign and joint investment primary vehicles for promoting export-centered industries that have become increasingly capital-intensive rather than labor-intensive. This paper argues that these reforms reflect policy initiatives that are more consistent with Verdoorn's Law and Adam Smith's "vent for surplus" principle than with the efficiency principles of conventional Ricardo-Heckscher-Ohlin trade theory.