萨缪尔森经济学Economics第十八版 18th 课后概念、习题答案15

CHAPTER OVERVIEW AND TEACHING TIPS In this chapter, Samuelson and Nordhaus present the basic economic model of trade. The fundamental point is that foreign trade can improve the welfare (i.e., the standard of living) of most nations, even if they already are the most productive in producing everything. Part of David Ricardo’s great contribution to the study of international trade was to show that inefficiency in all lines of production would make a country poor, but it would not cause its trading opportuni-ties to totally evaporate. Relatively efficient and inefficient countries can still trade to mutual advantage, provided there are some differences in their relative costs of production. The first part of the chapter explains Ricardo’s innovative view of trade.

Once the case for free trade is made, Samuelson and Nordhaus turn the coin over to look at its opposite side, protec-tionism. The topic of protectionism always invokes lively discussion—among students, politicians, economists, and the usual group at the local coffee shop. Chapter 15 plays into that interest by reviewing not only how tariffs work, for example, but also how protectionism affects the U.S. citizenry. If free trade is so beneficial, why do we see so many bar-riers to free trade in the real world? To answer this question, it is essential to see how trade barriers work. Only then can their effects be delineated and their merits evaluated. Once students understand the effects of protectionism, the various arguments for and against protection can be critically reviewed.

The text tries to bring the theory up to date by calling attention to current practice, but you should certainly have no trouble finding a discussion of one sort of trade restraint or another in today’s newspaper. The role of interest-group politics in a democratic society is a fascinating topic. Lobbyists come into congressional offices with computer printouts of firms within districts that might be helped by protection measures; they never represent the cases of those who might be harmed. Is that harm spread around so much that it is negligible, or is it concentrated among people with less effec-tive representation?

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

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Distinguish between absolute advantage and comparative advantage .2.

Explain, using a simple two-commodity model, how a country can increase its real income by specializing (for the purpose of export) in the commodity in which it has a comparative advantage and importing the commodity in which it has a comparative disadvantage.3.

Understand why the Ricardo model can easily be extended to include multinational trading arrangements.4.

Use supply-and-demand analysis to outline the economic effects of protection. Show that opening trade in a good drives its domestic price toward equality with its world price. Show that a tariff can be expected to generate welfare losses.5.

Outline the economic as well as the noneconomic arguments for trade restriction and evaluate their validity.6.Discuss a few nontariff barriers to trade that have been employed by the United States in the past few years and explain how they work.73C H A P T E R

C o m p a r a t i v e

A d v a n t a g e

a n d P r o t e c t i o n i s m

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