IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/jecper/v5y1991i2p201-08.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Retrospectives: Challenges to Free Trade

Author

Listed:
  • Douglas A. Irwin

Abstract

The recent theoretical literature on strategic trade policy suggests that government intervention in international trade has the potential to be welfare improving. Government promotion of exports from imperfectly competitive industries, for example, may enable domestic firms to capture economic rents from foreign firms, thereby increasing national welfare. In addition, active responses to foreign protection, by a policy of reciprocity, may be required to prevent a loss of domestic welfare. Although these findings may bring into question the traditional economic case for free trade, many economists doubt that these theories provide sound guidance for trade policy. Economists in the nineteenth century also argued about whether theoretical justifications for tariffs compromised the case for free trade. This paper discusses two older debates somewhat related to the current focus on strategic industries and reciprocity, and concludes with an observation about how developments in economic theory affect economists' view of policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Douglas A. Irwin, 1991. "Retrospectives: Challenges to Free Trade," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 5(2), pages 201-208, Spring.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:jecper:v:5:y:1991:i:2:p:201-08
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/jep.5.2.201
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jep.5.2.201
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Krugman, Paul R, 1987. "Is Free Trade Passe?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 1(2), pages 131-144, Fall.
    2. Irwin, Douglas A, 1988. "Welfare Effects of British Free Trade: Debate and Evidence from the 1840s," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(6), pages 1142-1164, December.
    3. Corden, W. Max, 1990. "Strategic trade policy : how new? how sensible?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 396, The World Bank.
    4. Mill, John Stuart, 1874. "Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, edition 2, number mill1874.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. D. Nayyar, 1996. "Free trade: why, when and for whom?," Banca Nazionale del Lavoro Quarterly Review, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, vol. 49(198), pages 333-350.
    2. Norgaard, Richard B. & Liu, Xuemei, 2007. "Market governance failure," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 634-641, January.
    3. Réka Juhász & Nathan Lane, 2024. "The Political Economy of Industrial Policy," CESifo Working Paper Series 11143, CESifo.
    4. D. Nayyar, 1996. "Free trade: why, when and for whom?," BNL Quarterly Review, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, vol. 49(198), pages 333-350.
    5. Bilge Aykol & Dayananda Palihawadana & Leonidas C. Leonidou, 2013. "Research on the Import Activities of Firms 1960–2010," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 53(2), pages 215-250, April.
    6. Daw Ma, 2014. "Can Emerging Market Protectionism Be Beneficial?," Asian Economic and Financial Review, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 4(9), pages 1175-1189, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Douglas A. Irwin, 1990. "Free trade at risk? An historical perspective," International Finance Discussion Papers 391, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    2. Baldwin, Robert E, 1992. "Are Economists' Traditional Trade Policy Views Still Valid?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 30(2), pages 804-829, June.
    3. Corbo, Vittorio & Fischer, Stanley, 1991. "Adjustment programs and Bank support : rationale and main results," Policy Research Working Paper Series 582, The World Bank.
    4. Weck-Hannemann, Hannelore, 1989. "Protectionism in direct democracy," Discussion Papers, Series II 79, University of Konstanz, Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 178 "Internationalization of the Economy".
    5. da Costa, Carlos E. & Pereira, Thiago, 2014. "On the efficiency of equal sacrifice income tax schedules," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 399-418.
    6. Boggio, Luciano, 2009. "Long-run effects of low-wage countries' growing competitiveness and exports of manufactures," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 38-49, March.
    7. Margaret A. Walls, 1990. "Welfare Cost Of An Oil Import Fee," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 8(2), pages 176-189, April.
    8. Nouf Alsharif & Sambit Bhattacharyya & Maurizio Intartaglia, 2016. "Economic Diversification in Resource Rich Countries: Uncovering the State of Knowledge," Working Paper Series 09816, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    9. Paul Wonnacott & Ronald Wonnacott, 2005. "What's the Point of Reciprocal Trade Negotiations? Exports, Imports, and Gains from Trade," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 1-20, January.
    10. Wolfgang Kerber & Oliver Budzinski, "undated". "Towards a Differentiated Analysis of Competition of Competition Laws," German Working Papers in Law and Economics 2004-1-1090, Berkeley Electronic Press.
    11. Emmanouil Karakostas, 2022. "The Effects of Protectionism on the Exports of the Trade Partners: A Composite Index," International Journal of Business and Economic Sciences Applied Research (IJBESAR), International Hellenic University (IHU), Kavala Campus, Greece (formerly Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology - EMaTTech), vol. 15(1), pages 58-70, July.
    12. Faruqee, Hamid & Laxton, Douglas & Muir, Dirk & Pesenti, Paolo, 2008. "Would protectionism defuse global imbalances and spur economic activity? A scenario analysis," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 2651-2689, August.
    13. Emediegwu, Lotanna E. & Wossink, Ada & Hall, Alastair, 2022. "The impacts of climate change on agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa: A spatial panel data approach," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    14. Setyastuti, Rini & Adiningsih, Sri & Widodo, Tri, 2018. "The Dynamics of Comparative Advantage in the ASEAN Region," MPRA Paper 86541, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Oscar Molina Tejerina & Luis Castro Peñarrieta, 2020. "Unexplained Wage Gaps in the Tradable and Nontradable Sectors: Cross-Sectional Evidence by Gender in Bolivia," Investigación & Desarrollo, Universidad Privada Boliviana, vol. 20(1), pages 5-23.
    16. Alan Deardorff, 1994. "Exploring the limits of comparative advantage," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 130(1), pages 1-19, March.
    17. Safet Kurtović & Blerim Halili & Nehat Maxhuni, 2019. "Exchange rate pass-through into import prices: evidence from Central and Southeast European countries," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 51-80, June.
    18. Simpson, R. David, 2002. "Definitions of Biodiversity and Measures of Its Value," RFF Working Paper Series dp-02-62, Resources for the Future.
    19. Christos N. Pitelis, 2011. "Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Integration," Chapters, in: Miroslav N. Jovanović (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Integration, Volume III, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. Fleming, Euan M., 2007. "Use of the single factoral terms of trade to analyse agricultural production," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 51(2), pages 1-7.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:jecper:v:5:y:1991:i:2:p:201-08. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.