Variable labour supply and the pure theory of international trade: an empirical note

Previous writers have shown that variable labour supply may lead to perverse price output responses in the two-sector Heckscher-Ohlin model. This note attempts to assess the empirical likelihood, as opposed to the theoretical possibility, of such perversities. Using a range of plausible parameter values, we conclude that cases of a perverse price-output response consistent with dynamic stability of the model, though theoretically possible, are unlikely to arise in practice.