Welfare Effects of British Free Trade: Debate and Evidence from the 1840s
Welfare Effects of British Free Trade: Debate and Evidence from the 1840s
复制标题
英国自由贸易的福利影响：1840 年代的争论和证据
DOI：
10.1086/261581
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发表时间：
1988
影响因子：
8.2
通讯作者：
D. Irwin
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
D. Irwin
古典经济学家们就英国在19世纪40年代的关税削减是否应该以国外的关税自由化为条件展开了激烈的辩论。一些人，特别是罗伯特·托伦斯认为，单方面降低关税将严重恶化英国的贸易条件，以至于超过了效率的提高，使英国的境况变得更糟。本文用联立方程模型估计了这一时期英国的外贸弹性。它们被用在一个简单的一般均衡模型中，该模型明确考虑了贸易条件，以评估关税削减对福利的影响。结果表明，如果单方面降低关税，英国的境况会变得更糟。然而，外国关税的降低缓解了贸易条件的恶化，很容易让英国的境况变得更好。
The classical economists engaged in a vigorous debate over whether Britain's tariff reductions in the 1840s should be made contingent on tariff liberalization abroad. Some, notably Robert Torrens, believed that a unilateral tariff reduction would so deteriorate British terms of trade as to outweigh efficiency gains and make the country worse off. In this paper, Britain's foreign trade elasticities are estimated for this period in a simultaneous equation model. They are used in a simple general equilibrium model that explicitly takes the terms of trade into account to assess the welfare impact of tariff reductions. The results indicate that Britain would have been made worse off from a unilateral tariff reduction. However, foreign tariff reductions mitigated the terms of trade deterioration and could easily have made Britain better off.