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Article
Welfare Reducing Trade and Optimal Trade Policy
CARD Working Papers
  • E. Kwan Choi, Iowa State University
  • Hamid Beladi, University of Dayton
Publication Date
8-1-1998
Series Number
98-WP 196
Abstract

In contrast to some trade theorists' long-held beliefs, this study shows that free trade reduces the welfare of a small country with unemployment unless the free trade price of the importable falls below the autarky equivalent price. This study formulates a disequilibrium trade model with sticky money wages that has been generalized to fixed-price economies where output prices as well as wages are fixed, independent of excess demand or supply in the labor and goods markets. After describing the model and its solution, the authors discuss the implications of changing tariff rates on foreign products, construct a numerical example showing that their result is possible for many countries with unemployment, and analyze the issues of optimal tariff.

Publication Information

This working paper was published as Choi, E Kwan and Hamid Beladi, "Welfare reducing trade and optimal trade policy," Japan and the World Economy 10 (1998): 187–198, doi:10.1016/S0922-1425(97)00024-8.

Citation Information
E. Kwan Choi and Hamid Beladi. "Welfare Reducing Trade and Optimal Trade Policy" (1998)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/ekwan-choi/11/