The threadbare free trade idea

Idea Flows, Economic Growth, and Trade∗

We study a simple model of the world economy where the engine of growth is the flows of ideas. Ideas are assumed to diffuse randomly across pair of goods, where the processes used in the production of the lower cost good is adopted. We assume that producers in a country can learn from all sellers of goods to this country. We analyze how trade in goods, and impediments to it, affect this diffusi...

Free Trade and the Environment

what should environmentalists say about free trade? Many environmentalists object to free trade by appealing the " Race to the Bottom Argument. " This argument is inconclusive, but there are reasons to worry about unrestricted free trade's environmental effects nonetheless; the rules of trade embodied in institutions such as the World Trade Organization may be unjustifiable. Programs to compens...

The Free Trade Magic Act

In a recent paper, three economists — Drusilla Brown, Alan Deardoff, and Robert Stern — attempt to calculate the benefits of trade liberalization. They estimate that complete elimination of all trade barriers in the world would add $1.9 trillion (about 5%) to the world's gross economic product by 2005 (Brown, Deardoff, and Stern 2001). Brown-Deardoff-Stern's numbers look convincing, leaving the...

Rate or Trade? Identifying Winning Ideas in Open Idea Sourcing

ion (Shaft and Vessey 2006). The task of evaluating ideas is represented by the mechanism that is provided to the user. Thus, mechanism accuracy is, all else being equal, a function of how well a mechanism supports decision-making of its users. The performance of such decision processes is generally referred to as decision quality, defined as the “correctness” or “goodness” of decisions (Dennis...

Online Appendix Idea Flows, Economic Growth, and Trade