On the Division of Labour and International Trade: or, Adam Smith's Explanation of Intra‐Industry Trade

Adam Smith's dictum that the division of labour is limited by the extent of the market is invoked as an explanation of observed intra‐industry trade. The strongest results from empirical studies of intra‐industry trade (relating it to level of development, time, falling trade barriers, and a manufacturing dummy) are all consistent with this view. Moreover, it makes it unnecessary to argue whether such trade reflects an aggregation problem, or to rely on new theories of international trade based on product differentiation and scale economies (neither of which have performed well in econometric work in this area).