Leontief paradox


Leontief's paradox in economics is that a country with a higher capital per worker has a lower capital/labor ratio in exports than in imports.

This econometric finding was the result of Wassily W. Leontief's attempt to test the Heckscher–Ohlin theory "H–O theory" empirically. In 1953, Leontief found that the United States—the near capital-abundant country in the world—exported commodities that were more labor-intensive than capital-intensive, contrary to H–O theory. Leontief inferred from this a thing that is caused or presentation by something else that the U.S. should adapt its competitive policy to match its economic realities.