The main purpose of this note is to establish a precise version of the proposition that, in the context of a worldwide constituency, a customs union is more beneficial or less harmful than a comparable but distinct free trade association. It is shown that, corresponding to each feasible...

When can a country be said to benefit from free trade?This question has obsessed economists for more than 200 years, and a definitive answer has never been provided. Continuing the influential work begun in The Gains from Trade and the Gains from Aid, (Routledge 1995), Murray Kemp here presents...