Imperfect Labor Mobility and Unemployment in LDCs: Reply

In a recent paper (Parai and Beladi 1997; PB hereafter), we have analyzed the implications of growth and trade policies for a small open economy facing imperfect labor mobility and unemployment of the Harris‐Todaro variety. We have used the Casas (1984) specification of the labor immobility phenomenon for a Harris‐Todaro type economy, and have shown that most of the results in Harris‐Todaro framework remain unaltered even under imperfect labor mobility, provided that the elasticity of labor mobility parameter exceeds a critical minimum value. On the optimal tariff issue, Gilbert and Mikic (1997; GM hereafter) find our results counterconventional. In GM's view, the nonconventional result in PB is due to our simplification of the labor mobility specification given by Casas. In this note, we offer our response to GM's comments.