We present a new tariff-game rule and a new numéraire rule in Krugman's celebrated model to form symmetric trading blocs. We hold that to maintain logical consistency in a world of symmetric trading blocs, an individual bloc should act on the actions of other individual external blocs in a...

This paper discusses the causes and impacts of the financial crisis of 2007–2010 and examines the reforms aimed at the prevention of its recurrence. The causes to be discussed include housing and commodity bubbles, easy credit conditions, subprime lending, predatory lending, deregulation and...

In a symmetric model of free-trade blocs, the seemingly innocuous normalization rule by setting the world price of a given good as the numéraire will cause asymmetry in the Nash equilibrium. This paper presents a new symmetric tariff game approach and a new price normalization rule that are...

This paper provides an overview of trade, environmental, and related public issues and policies. It discusses the pollution problem, the recent global warming trend, the attempts of world's various levels of institutions such as the UN, the WTO, regional, national, and other organizations to...

This paper examines the various economic issues on offshoring (international outsourcing). It begins with a discussion of the factors that determine a firm's decision to offshore and illustrates, with simple models, the cost saving of offshoring certain stages of production and the advantages of...

This paper discusses WTO's trade dispute settlement procedure. It also discusses NAFTA's unique dispute settlement system that subjects antidumping and countervailing duty determinations to binational panel reviews instead of the more conventional judicial reviews. The paper then studies seven...