Neoclassical growth and commodity trade

We construct a dynamic Heckscher-Ohlin model in which the initial distribution of production factors across economics makes factor price equalization impossible. The model produces dynamics similar to those of the neoclassical growth model. However, free trade prevents identically parameterized economies from achieving identical steady states. Although poor economies grow faster than rich economies during the transition to the steady state, the former do not catch up with the income per capita levels of the latter. A many-country version of the model exemplifies the open-economy neoclassical growth model's ability to produce interesting distribution dynamics of income per capita. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.