Seth Cohn wins Commenter of the Day for getting all three answers to my Middle-Earth quiz right. Here are the answers with brief logic:
1. The Shire will export Longbottom leaf and import mithril armor and iron ore. (Logic: Being abundant in land and scarce in labor and capital, The Shire can make leaf more cheaply than other countries but is a high-cost producer of the others. This is known as the Heckscher-Ohlin Theorem.)
2. The price of Longbottom leaf will fall and the price of mithril armor rise in Gondor. (Logic: We can infer that Gondor exports mithril armor and imports Longbottom leaf from its factor endowments. According to the Theory of Comparative Advantage, opening up to trade reduces the price of the imported good and increases the price of the good that is now in demand in foreign markets.)
3. Owners of labor (workers) support free trade in Mordor, while capital and land support protection. (Logic: Workers benefit from free trade in goods and services in Mordor because free trade will raise the relative price of iron ore and reduce the relative prices of the other goods, since labor is the abundant factor of production and Mordor will export iron. The increase in the price of iron ore, which uses labor intensively, bids up wages of workers throughout the economy. For the same reasons, owners of scarce capital and land oppose trade because their incomes will be bid down. This is known as the Stolper-Samuelson Theorem.)
Update: Fellow Pileite Grover Cleveland reminds me that it is quite unusual to see a “politician” who is well versed in economic theory. Yes, Seth Cohn is a New Hampshire legislator – but not exactly a professional politician at $100 in salary per year.
are three countries in Middle-Earth. The Shire is abundant in land and scarce in labor and capital; Gondor is abundant in labor and capital and scarce in land; Mordor is abundant in labor and scarce in land and capital. Some of the products these countries trade include Longbottom leaf (produced intensively with land), mithril chain-mail armor (produced intensively with labor and capital), and raw iron ore (produced intensively with labor).
