Tag: free trade
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“Is Fair Trade Fair?” – Primer on Free Trade Coffee
What are the economic merits of Free Trade Coffee? In this video, my friend Victor Claar (professor of economics at Henderson State University) gives a 25 minute presentation about the economics of fair trade. It was originally presented at the Macmillan's EconEd Conference last year. The audience is economics teachers, but the presentation is accessible…
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Americans, Led by Democrats, Get Friendlier With Free Trade
Conversable Economist: Americans, Led by Democrats, Get Friendlier With Free Trade " … I welcome the overall shift toward a more positive view of foreign trade among Americans. As I've argued on this blog before, the next few decades seem likely to be a time when the most rapid economic growth is happening outside the…
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How Free Trade Might Be the World’s Best Option
Huffington Post: How Free Trade Might Be the World's Best Option – Bjorn Lomborg … The classic argument for free trade points out that specialization and exchange benefits everyone, because goods are produced by the countries that specialize in those goods and produce them most efficiently. The standard World Bank models show that realistic free…
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Unfair Trade
Foreign Affairs: Unfair Trade The Fair-Trade Movement Does More Harm Than Good … Until now, any questioning of the fair-trade movement has been limited to the micro level. The movement has faced repeated criticisms, for example, for the relatively expensive fees that producers must pay to get a fair-trade label, which make it ineffective for…
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Easing restrictions and barriers could improve African food trade
Christian Science Monitor: Easing restrictions and barriers could improve African food trade A report by the World Bank found that easing fees, rules, and border restrictions could help Africa's food crisis, and could also lead to economic growth. Africa could avoid food shortages if it reduces the tangled web of rules, fees and high costs…
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Free Trade as Technology
Carpe Diem: If Free Trade = Technological Progress, Then Restrictions on Trade = Restrictions on Technology From Greg Mankiw's textbook: "Trade is, in some ways, a form of technology. When a country exports wheat and imports textiles, it is as if it had invented a form of technology for turning wheat into textiles. A country…
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Don’t Blame “Free Trade” for Losses of Sweet Jobs in Hershey, PA: Blame Sour Sugar Policy
Victor Claar's Economics Blog: Don't Blame "Free Trade" for Losses of Sweet Jobs in Hershey, PA: Blame Sour Sugar Policy As a campaign-season article by Max Deveson for the BBC pointed out, unionized workers in Hershey, Pennsylvania blame free trade for the potential relocation of hundreds of jobs from dear sweet Hershey to Mexico. Their…