Endogenous Comparative Advantage*
研究了两个相同国家之间的贸易模型，工人内生获取技能且企业观察不完美，导致信息外部性与一般均衡效应相互作用，产生比较优势不对称均衡，贸易福利效果不确定。
Abstract We develop a model of trade between identical countries. Workers endogenously acquire skills that are imperfectly observed by firms; therefore, firms use aggregate country investment as the prior when evaluating workers. This creates an informational externality interacting with general equilibrium effects on each country's skill premium. Asymmetric equilibria with comparative advantages exist even when there is a unique equilibrium under autarky. Symmetric, no‐trade equilibria can be unstable under free trade. Welfare effects are ambiguous: trade can be Pareto‐improving even if it leads to an equilibrium between rich and poor countries, with no special advantage regarding country size.