It is well-known that preferential trade agreements involving final products may raise or lower welfare, depending upon whether the trade-creating elements dominate or not. The object of this paper is to examine the effects of preference arrangements covering trade in goods as well as components...

The world economy has become more open and integrated in recent years. Countries are more engaged in international trade and the importance of tradables relative to non-tradables in national output is rising everywhere. Capital flows more freely among countries and workers cross borders more...

The domestic repercussions of trade liberalization have come under intense scrutiny in recent years. Trade liberalization and other aspects of globalization have been blamed for income inequality in the United States and unemployment in Europe. A key concern has been trade with low-wage...

This paper examines the implications of cross-border component sourcing and production networks for trade competitiveness and welfare. Offshore sourcing of components in which it has comparative disadvantage, enables a country to enhance its comparative advantage in the final product. This...

A feature of the continuing integration of the world economy is the globalization of production and the consequent rise of trade in parts and components. Products are more internationalized and less identified with any particular country. Non-trivial shares of the value-added of many exports...

An important facet of "globalization" is the spread of cross-border production, which is variously known as intra-product specialization, super-specialization, or production fragmentation. This advanced stage in the international division of labor works particularly well between high-wage...

Does offshore sourcing by domestic producers destroy jobs? Does it lower wages? To a growing number of observers the answer to both questions appears to be affirmative. This paper examines the issue in the context of a conventional trade framework that has been amended to allow production to be...

This paper begins with a review of the domestic sources of US trade policy and the external influences on that policy. It then examines changes in the external orientation of US manufacturing, focusing in particular on the rapidly spreading phenomenon of offshore production of parts and and...

This study examines the major arguments for and against enhanced monetary integration in North America, with particular emphasis on the Canadian perspective. In this context, the question is whether the current floating rate regime should be replaced by greater fixity of exchange rates in...