This paper builds upon Pasinetti's pure labour model, formalizing some of the insights that he has provided into the structure of international trade. A systematic approach is followed, starting with restrictive assumptions that are relaxed in subsequent stages of analysis. The starting point is a model in which two countries, one advanced and the other underdeveloped, have equal costs of production. This implies that there are no incentives for trade. At a second stage, we introduce and formalize the conditions required for these countries to exhibit absolute cost advantages, based on wage disparities. Finally, the paper establishes the conditions required for comparative advantage, based on relative differences in technology. Building on an interpretation of Ricardo's writings on trade, it is shown that absolute advantage is critical for the two countries to realise potential cost reductions afforded by comparative advantage. This abstract insight, based on the Pasinetti pure labour system, suggests that absolute advantage has a more fundamental role in international trade than given by previous studies, which focus more on either the international mobility of money capital or the international fragmentation of production.

本文建立在 Pasinetti 的纯劳动模型之上，将他对国际贸易结构提供的一些见解正式化。遵循系统方法，从限制性假设开始，在随后的分析阶段放宽。出发点是一个模型，其中两个国家，一个是先进的，另一个是不发达的，生产成本相等。这意味着没有贸易激励措施。在第二阶段，我们引入并正式确定这些国家基于工资差异展现绝对成本优势所需的条件。最后，本文根据技术的相对差异确定了比较优势所需的条件。基于对李嘉图贸易著作的解释，研究表明，绝对优势对于两国实现比较优势所带来的潜在成本降低至关重要。这种基于 Pasinetti 纯劳动体系的抽象见解表明，绝对优势在国际贸易中的作用比以前的研究更为根本，以前的研究更关注货币资本的国际流动性或国际生产的分割。