I am generally not in favour of trade protection. I grew up in a country that had very extensive protection (tariffs, import quotas) on manufacturing goods, which was justified on a number of grounds – capacity to shift to defense industries; stable employment; and more abstractly, an expression of becoming a ‘modern’ nation, leaving our agrarian roots behind. The initial move to impose high tariffs was that a young industry would take time to develop – the so-called infant industry...
Read More »Ramanan — More Free Trade Orthodoxies
Nice post on trade, citing Joan Robinson and Nicholas Kaldor.The Case for Concerted ActionMore Free Trade OrthodoxiesV. Ramanan
Read More »Lars P. Syll — Dani Rodrik’s Ten Commandments
Longish and detained, but worth a read if you are following this debate.Lars P. Syll’s BlogDani Rodrik’s Ten CommandmentsLars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University
Read More »Zac Tate — Capitalism is losing support. It is time for a new deal.
The financial crisis has led many to question the legitimacy of capitalism. The verdict, 10 years on, has not been favourable. In an opinion poll by YouGov, three-quarters of German adults, two-thirds of Britons and over half of Americans believe that, “the poor get poorer and the rich get richer in capitalist economies”. Their sense of injustice is not only a reaction to bank bailouts, years of austerity and corporate scandals. The challenge is fundamental. There is a growing awareness in...
Read More »Dean Baker — Why Is It So Hard for Intellectuals to Envision Alternative Forms of Globalization
When it comes to critics of globalization with standing in the mainstream of the economics profession, few are better than Dani Rodrik. Nonetheless when it comes to laying out the indictment of the path pursued over the last three decades in a Washington Post interview, even he largely accepts the story that the basic story that “globalization” has some specific direction attached to it. The point here is that globalization, meaning the greater integration of economies across the world,...
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