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Globalization and World Trade. Globalization a la Facebook. Openness. Trade in goods and services Finance Labor Nations are more closely linked through trade in goods and services, through flows of money, through investments, but not through labor flows.
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Openness • Trade in goods and services • Finance • Labor • Nations are more closely linked through trade in goods and services, through flows of money, through investments, but not through labor flows.
Is the Study of International Economics Important? Examples: • Countries that are very open to international trade? • Countries that are not participating in international trade? • Countries whose financial markets are very open? • Countries that are not open to flows of money? • A previous era of globalization?
Current U.S. Trade Balance • http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/international/trade/tradnewsrelease.htm
Flows of Capital to Developing Countries(as Percentage of Advanced-Country GDP)
Labor Openness Immigrants as a Percentage of the U.S. Population
What is different about the study of international economics from a study of a national economy? • On the trade side: • Governments regulate international trade (tariffs, quotas and regulation) and investment (taxes and regulation). • Governments can discriminate against a subgroup (typically foreign) companies. • On the monetary side: • Governments control the supply of their currency. • Governments can control the (nominal) exchange rate. • Governments can regulate capital flows. • On the labor side: • Governments can set immigration policy, and to a lesser extent, governments can also set emigration policy.
Patterns of Trade • Differences in labor productivity may explain why some countries export/import certain products. • Differences in climate and resources can explain why Brazil exports coffee and Australia exports iron ore. • How relative supplies of capital, labor and land are used in the production of different goods may also explain why some countries export certain products. • But why does Japan export automobiles, while the US exports aircraft? • Historical developments can also inform us about the patterns of trade.
Gains from Trade • Trade is a voluntary transaction, both sides receive something that they want. • Even a country that is the most efficient producer of everything will gain from trade. • Ricardian Comparative advantage. • Countries will export goods which use abundant resources and imports goods which use scarce resources. • H-O trade theory • With trade, countries can specialize - IRS theory
Harm from Trade • Trade is predicted to benefit countries as a whole, but trade may harm particular groups within a country. • International trade can adversely affect the owners of resources that are used intensively in industries that compete with imports. • Trade may therefore have effects on the distribution of income within a country. • Specialization induced by trade can also make countries more vulnerable to shocks.
International Trade Versus International Finance • International trade focuses on transactions of real goods and services across nations. • These transactions usually involve a physical movement of goods or a commitment of tangible resources like labor services. • Intra-temporal trade. • International finance focuses on financial or monetary transactions across nations. • For example, purchases of US dollars or financial assets by Europeans. • Inter-temporal trade.
The Effects of Government Policies on Trade • Policy makers affect the amount of trade in goods, services, and financial assets through • tariffs: taxes on imports or exports, • quotas: a quantity restriction on imports or exports, • export subsidies: a payment to producers that export, • or through other regulations (e.g., product specifications) that exclude foreign products from the market, or restrict exports of certain domestic products, services or financial assets. • What are the costs and benefits of these policies?
An Ethical Framework • Describe the detailed impact of any trade policy; both intended and unintended. • What are the benefits and drawbacks of the policy in question? • How do we aggregate / evaluate the total impact of this policy? • Are there different frameworks of ethical reference that lead to different conclusions? • What do I think?