Abstract:
Health trade and related tourism have become prevalent in recent
times, particularly in countries where quality medical services are
provided at a relatively low cost. Therefore, using a competitive general
equilibrium trade model, this article theoretically attempts to find
possible complementarity between the health sector and the tourism
sector in a small open developing economy. While exploring the results,
this article also finds the effect of trade reform on factor prices, per
unit factor requirement and output of different sectors of the economy.
Capital owners are seen to lose with trade reform, while labours and
doctors gain. Eventually, both health and tourism sectors are found to
be complementary in nature. However, expansion of these sectors is
conditional on factor intensity assumption. Following this, we briefly
touch upon the possible effects of deglobalisation in such an economy.
We find that capitalists gain, whereas both doctors and labours suffer
loss. Complementarity between health and tourism sectors persists, and
the size of different sectors is again found to depend on factor intensity.
