The voluntary export restraint agreement (VER) limiting Japanese exports of cars to the US is evaluated. Extending a previous article dealing with Japanese transplant auto factories in the US, the authors examine impacts of alternative responses to the VER on the micro and macro level. The VER...

Imperfect competition models of international trade can explain differences in rates of exchange rate "pass-through" as the consequence of differences in industry structure. I evaluate such relationships for a sample of U.S. industries by regressing estimated pass-through coefficients on a...

While part of the recent increase in the Japanese trade surplus can be attributed to the Japanese recession, the surplus has widened despite the appreciation of the yen and enactment of policies to open Japanese markets. We review the trade surplus issue in the light of theories of trade and...

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was intended to stimulate the U.S. economy and to create jobs. But at what cost? In this paper, we discuss the range of potential benefits and costs associated with counter-cyclical fiscal policy. Benefits and costs may be social, macroeconomic,...