Trade & Open EconomyadvancedConcept explainer

Heckscher-Ohlin Model

Trade driven by factor endowments, capital-rich countries export capital-intensive goods.

Definition

Trade from factor endowments with shared technology: countries export goods intensive in their abundant factor, capital-rich exports capital-intensive goods.

Key equation

H-O theorem + corollaries: factor-price equalization, Stolper-Samuelson, Rybczynski

The intuition

Trade is indirect factor exchange: Australia 'exports land' inside wheat, Bangladesh 'exports labor' inside garments. Prices of factors then converge across countries as if the factors themselves had migrated.

Exam tip

Empirics: cite Leontief's paradox (US exports were labor-intensive) as the classic H-O falsification and why technology differences rescue it.

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