The Limits of Protectionism

The Limits of Protectionism PDF Author: Michael Lusztig
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre
ISBN: 9780822972563
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Conventional wisdom holds that free trade is economically beneficial to nations. But this does not prevent industries and interest groups from lobbying their governments for protection, which creates a fear of electoral backlash among politicians hoping to promote free trade. The Limits of Protectionism demonstrates how governments can attain those economic benefits while avoiding the political costs. Michael Lusztig's theoretical model focuses on a process by which protectionists can be pushed to restructure and compete in a global economy. In this process, a small cutback in domestic protection leads to lost market shares at home; producers must then turn to overseas exports, and, as the size of foreign profits grow, former protectionists become active advocates for more and greater free trade opportunities. In a wide-ranging array of case studies—from nineteenth-century Britain to Depression-era United States to contemporary New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, and Mexico—Lusztig reveals that, if skillfully handled, governments can eliminate the obstacles to free trade and enjoy continued economic growth without fear of protectionist groups seeking revenge at the ballot box.

The Limits of Protectionism

The Limits of Protectionism PDF Author: Michael Lusztig
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre
ISBN: 9780822972563
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 292

Get Book

Book Description
Conventional wisdom holds that free trade is economically beneficial to nations. But this does not prevent industries and interest groups from lobbying their governments for protection, which creates a fear of electoral backlash among politicians hoping to promote free trade. The Limits of Protectionism demonstrates how governments can attain those economic benefits while avoiding the political costs. Michael Lusztig's theoretical model focuses on a process by which protectionists can be pushed to restructure and compete in a global economy. In this process, a small cutback in domestic protection leads to lost market shares at home; producers must then turn to overseas exports, and, as the size of foreign profits grow, former protectionists become active advocates for more and greater free trade opportunities. In a wide-ranging array of case studies—from nineteenth-century Britain to Depression-era United States to contemporary New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, and Mexico—Lusztig reveals that, if skillfully handled, governments can eliminate the obstacles to free trade and enjoy continued economic growth without fear of protectionist groups seeking revenge at the ballot box.

Protectionism

Protectionism PDF Author: Jagdish N. Bhagwati
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262521505
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
"Through a combination of text, quotations, cartoons, tables, charts, and graphs, Bhagwati ... looks at the forces for and against protection."--Jacket.

The Collapse of Global Trade, Murky Protectionism, and the Crisis

The Collapse of Global Trade, Murky Protectionism, and the Crisis PDF Author: Richard E. Baldwin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781907142239
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
The global financial crisis of 2008/9 is the Great Depression of the 21st century. For many though, the similarities stop at the Wall Street Crash as the current generation of policymakers have acted quickly to avoid the mistakes of the past. Yet the global crisis has made room for mistakes all of its own. While governments have apparently kept to their word on refraining from protectionist measures in the style of 1930s tariffs, there has been a disturbing rise in "murky protectionism." Seemingly benign, these crisis-linked policies are twisted to favour domestic firms, workers and investors. This book, first published as an eBook on VoxEU.org in March 2009, brings together leading trade policy practitioners and experts - including Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean and former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo. Initially its aim was to advise policymakers heading in to the G20 meeting in London, but since the threat of murky protectionism persists, so too do their warnings.

What's Wrong with Protectionism

What's Wrong with Protectionism PDF Author: Pierre Lemieux
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538122138
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 142

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Book Description
Putting tariffs on imported goods or setting other barriers to international trade can be tempting for politicians. They assume that many of their constituents believe that free trade is not fair trade and that other countries aren’t playing by the rules. This belief makes it easy for industry leaders to demand protection for their businesses and their workers—to “put America first.” But Americans should resist the siren calls of protectionism. In this highly relevant protectionism primer, Pierre Lemieux shows what can happen if they don’t. As the author demonstrates, trade between any two countries is fair for the same reasons as exchange between two individuals: it is to the benefit of both. Lemieux carefully refutes the arguments of those who would curtail Americans’ access to the benefits of international commerce—from the claim that we can boost economic growth by reducing imports to the belief that free trade leads to “shipping jobs overseas.” Yes, manufacturing jobs are declining in this country and have been since the 1950s. But, as Lemieux points out, that’s in large part because Americans are making more advanced products more efficiently—that’s our comparative advantage. And this is happening as less-developed countries are producing more labor-intensive, low-tech goods—that’s their comparative advantage. All parties to a trade benefit. Lemieux shows how free trade improves the lives of American consumers, especially the poor. The narrow agenda of the protectionists—to protect a small minority of producers at the expense of millions of their fellow Americans—is the wrong path for an increasingly diverse and complex economy. This concise primer shows you why.

Peddling Protectionism

Peddling Protectionism PDF Author: Douglas A. Irwin
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400888425
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
The Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930, which raised U.S. duties on hundreds of imported goods to record levels, is America's most infamous trade law. It is often associated with--and sometimes blamed for--the onset of the Great Depression, the collapse of world trade, and the global spread of protectionism in the 1930s. Even today, the ghosts of congressmen Reed Smoot and Willis Hawley haunt anyone arguing for higher trade barriers; almost single-handedly, they made protectionism an insult rather than a compliment. In Peddling Protectionism, Douglas Irwin provides the first comprehensive history of the causes and effects of this notorious measure, explaining why it largely deserves its reputation for combining bad politics and bad economics and harming the U.S. and world economies during the Depression. In four brief, clear chapters, Irwin presents an authoritative account of the politics behind Smoot-Hawley, its economic consequences, the foreign reaction it provoked, and its aftermath and legacy. Starting as a Republican ploy to win the farm vote in the 1928 election by increasing duties on agricultural imports, the tariff quickly grew into a logrolling, pork barrel free-for-all in which duties were increased all around, regardless of the interests of consumers and exporters. After Herbert Hoover signed the bill, U.S. imports fell sharply and other countries retaliated by increasing tariffs on American goods, leading U.S. exports to shrivel as well. While Smoot-Hawley was hardly responsible for the Great Depression, Irwin argues, it contributed to a decline in world trade and provoked discrimination against U.S. exports that lasted decades. Featuring a new preface by the author, Peddling Protectionism tells a fascinating story filled with valuable lessons for trade policy today.

Chances and Risks of Free Trade Policies

Chances and Risks of Free Trade Policies PDF Author: Philipp Rothe
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3346224821
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 4

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Book Description
Academic Paper from the year 2020 in the subject Economics - Foreign Trade Theory, Trade Policy, , language: English, abstract: This paper examines the definition, history and status of free trade in the world today. In history a lot of countries acted in accordance with protectionist trade policies which means they had a lot of barriers, tariffs, and limits towards the trade with other countries. The aim was to protect their own economy. However, in today's world there is much more free trade which means "the buying and selling of goods, without limits on the amount of goods that one country can sell to another and without special taxes on the goods bought from a foreign country". The theory of free trade was first invented in 1776 by Adam Smith. And although it goes back to colonial times, free trade remained a theory for centuries. Ever since Adam Smith's concept of free trade, merchants tried to remove trade barriers between countries again and again. But especially during the industrialization period the countries used trade barriers to boost their economy. As late as after the second world war, the US for example started to lower import tariffs. The idea of lowering tariffs is that more trade takes place, countries can specialize economically in what they do best and afterwards exchange these products for goods that they don't produce most efficiently or that they don't have easily available. That in turn means the people are freer to choose their position in the economy, the worlds resources are used more efficient and the wealth of nations is growing. In a nutshell it means a country can compete in the global market by specializing to its fundamental economic strengths and by doing this increase economic growth. Some international institutions such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization (WTO) were founded to promote free trade in place of protectionism and so helped to build the world how it is today in terms of trading.

Limits to Liberalization

Limits to Liberalization PDF Author: Patricia M. Goff
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801444586
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
The so-called culture industries--film, television and radio broadcasting, periodical and book publishing, video and sound recording--are noteworthy exceptions to the rhetorical commitment of Western countries to free trade as a major goal. These exceptions threatened to derail such high-profile negotiations as NAFTA and its predecessor, the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement, as well as the Uruguay Round of the GATT. Conventional wisdom did not foresee trouble from this source, because these established industries are not commercial national champions, nor are they particularly large providers of jobs. As Patricia M. Goff shows, the standard trade literature considers the monetary value but doesn't recognize the symbolic importance of cultural production. In Limits to Liberalization, she traces the interplay between the commercial and the cultural. Governments that want to expand free trade may simultaneously resist liberalization in the culture industries (and elsewhere, including agriculture and health care). Goff traces the rationale for "cultural protectionism" in the trade policies of Canada, France, and the European Union. The result is a larger understanding of the forces that shape international trade agreements and a book that speaks to current theoretical concerns about national identity as it plays out in politics and international relations.

The Quest for Security

The Quest for Security PDF Author: Joseph Stiglitz
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231156863
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
Some have suggested that the turmoil in the eurozone "proves" the deficiencies in the welfare state. This book argues that the superior performance of the Scandinavian countries arises from their superior systems of social protection, which allow their citizens to undertake greater risk and more actively participate in globalization. Others suggest that we can address terrorism or transnational crimes through the strengthening of borders or long distance wars. This book develops the proposition that such approaches have the opposite effect and that only through spreading the kind of human security experienced in well-ordered societies can these dangers be managed. This book also examines how these global changes play out not only in the relations among countries and the management of globalization but at every level of our society--

Power, Protection, and Free Trade

Power, Protection, and Free Trade PDF Author: David A. Lake
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501723049
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Why do nations so frequently abandon unrestricted international commerce in favor of trade protectionism? David A. Lake contends that the dominant explanation, interest group theory, does not adequately explain American trade strategy or address the contradictory elements of cooperation and conflict that shape the international economy. Power, Protection, and Free Trade offers an alternative, systemic approach to trade strategy that builds on the interaction between domestic and international factors. In this innovative book, Lake maintains that both protection and free trade are legitimate and effective instruments of national policy, the considered responses of nations to varying international structures.

Risking Free Trade

Risking Free Trade PDF Author: Michael Lusztig
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN: 0822974789
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
There are few issues as politically explosive as the liberalization of trade, as recent controversies in the United States, Canada, and Mexico have shown. While loosening trade restrictions may make sense for a nation’s economy as a whole, it typically alienates powerful vested interests. Those interests can exact severe political costs for the government that enacts change. So why accept the risk? Michael Lusztig contructs a model to determine why and under what conditions governments will take the free trade gamble. Lusztig uses his model to explain shifts to free trade in four cases: Britain’s repeal of the Corn Laws; the United States’ enactment of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements Act (1934); Canada’s decision to initiate continental free trade with the United States in 1985; and Mexico’s decision to pursue the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1990.