THE COMPOSITION OF THE HUMAN-CAPITAL STOCK AND ITS RELATION TO INTERNATIONAL-TRADE - EVIDENCE FROM THE UNITED-STATES AND BRITAIN

This paper examines the factor intensity of US and UK trade using standard factor content techniques. In particular, it considers the role of labour skills in international trade. The principal focus is to demonstrate that specialisation according to skills has two dimensions - according to the general level of human capital and according to different types of skill at the same level of education and training. This analysis is conducted for different trading partners for each country. The paper also offers some methodological evidence on the effects on factor content analysis of the (dis)aggregation of factors and on the role of internationally varying production techniques. JEL No. F14