The US-China trade war forced a reluctant semiconductor industry into someone else’s fight, a very different position from its leading role in the 1980s trade conflict with Japan. This paper describes how the political economy of the global semiconductor industry has evolved since the 1980s....

This paper examines the trade policy response of Latin American governments to the rapid growth of China and India in world markets. To explain higher protection in sectors where a large share is imported from these countries, we extend the 'protection for sale' model to allow for different...

We find that Republican candidates lost support in the 2018 congressional election in counties more exposed to trade retaliation, but saw no commensurate electoral gains from US tariff protection. The electoral losses were driven by retaliatory tariffs on agricultural products, and were only...

This paper begins with a discussion of what constitutes corporate welfare, then proceeds to apply the corporate welfare concept to the steel industry in the United States. A review is made of the various government supports that the steel industry has enjoyed since 1969. Studies have estimated...

This paper estimates the impact of macroeconomic shocks on the trade policies of thirteen major emerging economies over 1989 - 2010; by 2010, these WTO member countries collectively accounted for 21 percent of world merchandise imports and 22 percent of world GDP. We examine determinants of...

This paper develops an efficiency theory of contingent trade policies. We model the competition for a domestic market between one domestic and one foreign firm as a pricing game under incomplete information about production costs. The cost distributions are asymmetric because the foreign firm...

We study the stability of trade policy arrangements under two regulatory scenarios, with/without PTAs. Unlike previous papers, we consider an extensive set of trade policy constellations and allow for unlimited farsightedness of negotiating parties. We find global free trade (GFT) to be uniquely...

This article examines protectionism from a number of perspectives. Part One provides some general background information describing present Japanese-American trade policy. Part Two does the same for Korean-American trade policy. Part Three offers some concluding observations

Donald Trump has stated that he is in favor of free trade, but that he wants it to be fair. He has said that, if elected president, he would renegotiate NAFTA and other trade deals that he views as unfair to the American worker. When Ford recently announced that it would move a portion of its...

This paper examines the various arguments that have been put forth in favor of protectionism, from both an accounting and philosophical perspective. The author concludes that arguments against free trade are based on faulty premises, illogical reasoning or incorrect facts. Part 2. This paper was...