National and International Returns to Scale in the Modern Theory of International Trade

For over a quarter century, the Heck-scher-Ohlin-Samuelson (H-O-S) trade model has thoroughly dominated work in the pure theory of international trade. Indeed this model is often identified as “the” modern theory of trade. But this dominance has always been rendered uneasy by a widespread suspicion that the salient facts of modern commerce are inconsistent with the theoretical structure. Two broad areas of suspicion may be identified…