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Working Paper
The energy content of U.S. exports and imports
Journal Article
The terms on which nations trade
Journal Article
One trading world, or many: the issue of regional trading blocs
Over the past several decades, more and more countries have entered into preferential trading arrangements, provoking concern that the benefits of free trade are being sacrificed to growing discrimination. Just how widespread is this discrimination in international trade, and is it "legitimate" under the codes of international behavior to which countries generally subscribe? What does economic theory tell us about the likely consequences of such discrimination, and why do so many nations engage in it? ; The author finds that most of the preferential trading arrangements, accounting for ...
Journal Article
Uruguay Round of trade negotiations: industrial and geographic effects in the U.S
No other international trade negotiations have been so comprehensive as the Uruguay Round, in which participants agreed to liberalize trade in agricultural products, to reduce tariffs on industrial products by an average of more than one-third, and to establish a World Trade Organization. This article examines the effects of the Uruguay Round agreements to liberalize trade in goods, focusing primarily on the United States. The analysis suggests that the agreements will have only a negligible impact upon employment in nearly every U.S. manufacturing sector, in every state, and in the country ...
Journal Article
Unilateral international transfers: unrequited and generally unheeded
Among the major categories of international transactions, perhaps none is usually farther from the limelight than unilateral, or unrequited, transfers. This obscurity is puzzling, because countries' net receipts or payments of unrequited transfers often exceed their international balances on both trade and current account and sometimes amount to sizable fractions of their national incomes, and maintaining equilibrium in international payments in the face of sizable transfers is a challenging issue.> This article discusses the singular nature of unrequited transfers, recalls an historic, and ...
Journal Article
The quest for sound money: currency boards to the rescue
Some countries with high inflation have adopted another nations more stable currency: Panama uses the U.S. dollar, gaining price stability and easier trade with its primary partner. But this arrangement grants an interest-free loan to the government whose currency is used. And the nation using the currency forgoes any income on the foreign currency holdings. ; One alternative, a currency board, achieves the other countrys monetary stability without these costs. Currency boards issue a domestic currency in return for the foreign currency, at a fixed exchange rate. Boards also hold assets ...
Journal Article
The decline of the oil cartel
Journal Article
The liberalization of international trade and payments in Eastern Europe
Few events can match the opening of the Berlin Wall as an historic symbol. Among the many things promised by that opening was the liberalization of trade that had been closely controlled for many years by the communist governments of Eastern Europe. This promise has virtually been realized in East Germany as that nation has unified with its neighbor to the West. Progress in other East European countries (including the Soviet Union) is uneven, however, because of concern over the costs of adjusting to freer trade. ; This article examines the nature, motivation, and consequences of ...
Journal Article
Popular myths about the world economy
Many of us "know" things that are not true, and we sometimes act, or urge our representatives to act, on our mistaken beliefs. This article examines three common myths, or misconceptions, about the international economy. The author points out that, as with most myths, these embody grains of truth, but if accepted without qualification they could lead to grievous policy errors.> The author analyzes three common false assumptions: that global competition prevents inflation; that fair trade requires equal labor standards; and that small firms cannot profitably export. Global competition is a ...