This paper examines if international trade can reduce total welfare in an international oligopoly with differentiated goods. We show that welfare is a U-shaped function in the transport cost as long as trade occurs in equilibrium. With a Cournot duopoly trade can reduce welfare compared to...

The effect of trade liberalization on the spatial concentration of economic activities is not straightforward. It has, on the one hand been widely argued that protectionism increase spatial concentration when firms locate close to the main domestic markets, but it has also been argued that trade...