Deck 12: Controversies in Trade Policy

Question 1

Spencer and Brander's model highlights the existence of

A)aircraft industries.
B)excess returns present in highly competitive markets.
C)excess returns,or rents,available in non-competitive markets.
D)the futility of government bureaucrats' attempts to build an airplane.
E)natural advantages in foreign technology firms.

Answer 1

excess returns,or rents,available in non-competitive markets.

Question 2

The proposal that trade agreements should include a system which monitors worker conditions and make the results available to consumers in the rich importing country

A)is consistent with the Invisible Hand paradigm.
B)is consistent with the market failure approach.
C)is consistent with the Ricardian theory of comparative advantage.
D)is consistent with the scale economies approach to trade theory.
E)is consistent with the principles laid out by the WTO.

Answer 2

is consistent with the market failure approach.

Question 3

Labor standards in trade are typically opposed by most developing countries who believe that they will be used

A)to further neo-imperialist colonial exploitation.
B)to charge these countries with crimes against child-labor standards at the Hague.
C)as a protectionist tool by import-competing producers in industrial countries.
D)as a means of spreading U.S.Corporate Values and destroying local cultures.
E)to hinder investment in foreign-based multinational corporations.

Answer 3

as a protectionist tool by import-competing producers in industrial countries.

Question 4

The argument that strategic planning is NOT likely to be practical due to insufficient information means that

A)because of trade secrets,the government does not know true cost relationships in any given industry.
B)if the government had all the relevant information in a given industry then it could decide whether a subsidy would enhance the public's welfare.
C)even if the government had all the relevant information in a given industry,it still could not decide whether a subsidy would enhance the public's welfare.
D)due to recent cuts in the Department of the Census' sampling budgets,industry surveys are no longer reliable,so that there is no way to determine if a subsidy is in the public's interest.
E)the government would need to employ its intelligence agencies in order to gain a complete understanding of the market.

Question 5

If firms in an industry are generating knowledge that other firms can use without paying for it,this industry is characterized by

A)social costs that exceed private costs.
B)social benefits that exceed private benefits.
C)social costs that exceed social benefits.
D)private benefits that exceed social benefits.
E)social benefits that undermine private benefits.

Question 6

The reason Airbus succeeded in the Brander Spencer example is that

A)the European government made an explicit subsidy offer,but the U.S.government did not.
B)Airbus' prices were better when adjusted for quality and warranty services.
C)Boeing traditionally refused to undertake any exchange rate risk in its transactions.
D)the U.S.acted in accordance with its ideological reliance on market solutions,whereas the Europeans ignored market and technological factors.
E)the Airbus plane benefited from more advanced technology.

Question 7

When the WTO met in Seattle to initiate a further move towards free international trade,thousands of activists met

A)in order to promote the WTO's goals of "Trade-not Aid."
B)in order to laud the WTO policy orientation which would bust local monopolies and therefore help ordinary relatively poor consumers everywhere.
C)in order to laud the WTO policy of disallowing government sweetheart deals,which typically meant that corrupt governments subsidized their in-laws' conglomerates on the backs of poor taxpayers.
D)in order to support the WTO efforts of bringing about a universal shift of resources in poor countries to higher efficiency and productivity uses,which would raise the real incomes of everyone.
E)in order to protest WTO free trade policies that they believed hurt workers.

Question 8

The existence of positive externalities due to the impossibility of full appropriability

A)supports the conclusions of the Heckscher-Ohlin model.
B)rejects the usefulness of government protectionism.
C)supports the concept that the government should support only high-tech industries.
D)provides support for government protectionism.
E)supports arguments for free trade.

Question 9

When one applies the Heckscher-Ohlin model of trade to the issue of trade-related income redistributions,one must conclude that North-South trade,such as U.S.-Mexico trade

A)must help low-skilled workers on both sides of the border.
B)is likely to hurt high-skilled workers in the U.S.
C)is likely to hurt low-skilled workers in the U.S.
D)is likely to hurt low-skilled workers in Mexico.
E)is likely to help highly skilled workers in Mexico.

Question 10

The United States

A)does not provide more support for R&D as compared to other forms of investment.
B)provides support for R&D by imposing high tariffs on R&D intensive products.
C)provides support for R&D by providing direct subsidies for such activities.
D)provides support for R&D through tax legislation.
E)provides support for R&D through grant incentives.

Question 11

The invocation of beggar-thy-neighbor arguments with respect to industrial policies

A)strengthens the argument for subsidies.
B)makes sense if the international Keynesian multipliers exceed unity.
C)applies only to rich countries most of whose trade partners are very poor countries.
D)weakens the argument for subsidies.
E)does not apply to rich countries who can influence relative world prices.

Question 12

Criticisms of the Brander-Spencer model include all EXCEPT which of the following?

A)the problem of insufficient information
B)the problem of likely foreign retaliation
C)the problem of harm to interests of consumers
D)the problem of adverse effects of trade policy politics
E)the problem of simultaneously causing harm to other industries

Question 13

The reason Airbus succeeded in the Brander Spencer example is that

A)Boeing made the first move in this strategic game.
B)Europeans tend to be better strategists than corn-fed Americans.
C)the Airbus actually was a better plane than the Boeing 747.
D)U)S.laws actually prohibit U.S.exporters from bribing foreign officials.
E)the subsidy removed the advantage that Boeing gained with their head start in production.

Question 14

It is argued that high-tech industries typically generate new technologies but cannot fully appropriate the commercial benefits associated with their inventions or discoveries.If this is TRUE,then in order to maximize a country's real income,the government should

A)tax the high-tech firms.
B)subsidize the high-tech firms.
C)protect the high-tech firms.
D)outsource high-tech production.
E)discourage high-tech investments.

Question 15

Spencer and Brander's model highlights the conventional assumption that

A)government involvement in business or in the economy tends to fail.
B)government subsidies tend to waste taxpayer's money.
C)government subsidies cannot create a successfully competing export.
D)government tends to distort when it displaces Adam Smith's Invisible Hand.
E)government subsidies can produce profits that exceed the subsidy's value.

Question 16

The Heckscher-Ohlin,factor-proportions model lends support to the argument that

A)trade tends to worsen the conditions of unskilled labor in rich countries.
B)trade tends to worsen the conditions of owners of capital in rich countries.
C)trade tends to worsen the conditions of workers in poor countries.
D)trade tends to worsen the conditions of workers in rich countries.
E)trade tends to worsen the conditions of highly skilled workers in rich countries.

Question 17

The best economic case one can make for an active industrial policy involves

A)the national security argument.
B)the technological spillover argument.
C)the environment preservation argument.
D)the high value added argument.
E)raising the national income.

Question 18

The Brander-Spencer model identified market failure in certain industries due to

A)unfair competition.
B)wildcat destructive competition.
C)environmental negative externalities associated with pollution.
D)limited competition.
E)lack of excess returns.

Question 19

Japan's protection of its semiconductor (RAM)producers is today seen as an object lesson in

A)how strategic planning may backfire and cause a large waste of resources.
B)how externalities may be successfully exploited by protectionist policies.
C)how excess returns may be successfully exploited by protectionist policies.
D)how government intervention may create a meaningful comparative advantage.
E)how monopolies can outlast government intervention.

Question 20

In the Brander-Spencer model the subsidy raises profits by more than the subsidy because of

A)the "multiplier" effect of government expenditures.
B)the military-industrial complex.
C)the forward and backward linkage effects of certain industries.
D)the deterrent effect of the subsidy on foreign competition.
E)the economies of scale once the company enters the market.

Question 21

When one applies the Heckscher-Ohlin model of trade to the issue of trade-related income redistributions,one must conclude that North-South trade,such as U.S.-Mexico trade,

A)must help low-skilled workers on both sides of the border.
B)is likely to hurt high-skilled workers in the U.S.
C)is likely to involve higher overall national economic gains that will be greater than any harm done to low-skilled workers in the U.S.
D)is likely to hurt low-skilled workers in Mexico.
E)gives no advantage to the workers in either country.

Question 22

It may be argued that Japan's explicit promotion of its microchip industry was an excellent example of successful industrial policy.What criteria would you apply to determine whether such a policy is or is not successful? Judging from your own stated criteria,was Japan's exercise successful? Why or why not? What information would a government require in order to increase the probability that its industrial policy would promote long-term self-generated economic growth?

Question 23

Refer to the above table.How could the U.S.government justify its decision to offer a subsidy to a profitable and successful business?

Question 24

In the second half of the 1990s a rapidly growing movement focused on the harm caused by international trade to

A)land owners in poor countries.
B)capital owners in rich industrialized countries.
C)land owners in rich industrialized countries.
D)production workers in both rich and poor countries.
E)terms of trade in developing countries.

Question 25

Refer to the above table.Suppose both governments offer their respective company a subsidy of $4 (million).

Question 26

The shipbreakers of Alang are

A)a metaphysical representation of the WTO,deriving from Edgar Rice Burroughs' Princess of Mars.
B)an early version of the Russian Ice-breaker of the Dnieper-Alang class.
C)a capital-intensive industry.
D)competing with pollution-producing industries in countries outside of India.
E)doing environmentally conscious work.

Question 27

Refer to the above table.Suppose the U.S.government (but not Europe)offers a $10 million subsidy?

Question 28

Refer to the above table.Suppose Airbus is set to produce the aircraft before Boeing.Which company will enter the market?

Question 29

In today's world markets,poor developing countries tend to rely primarily on exports of

A)agricultural products.
B)primary products.
C)mineral products.
D)manufactured products.
E)high-tech products.

Question 30

The WTO seems at times to be interfering in domestic policy since

A)the line between domestic policies and de factor protectionism is often fuzzy.
B)it is a supra-national organization with the power to overturn governments.
C)it determines which nations may trade what with whom.
D)it punishes naughty nations.
E)it exempts the U.S.and other powerful member nations from many of its edicts.

Question 31

Free trade and globalization is generally believed

A)to cause a degradation in the world's environment.
B)to improve the environment by correcting for distortions caused by import competing policies.
C)to help spread the best of each country's culture,so as to uplift global cultural standards.
D)to help each country safeguard the best of its own culture.
E)to make no difference in the economic welfare of the world.

Question 32

The Ricardian model of comparative advantage lends support to the argument that

A)trade tends to worsen the conditions of unskilled labor in rich countries.
B)trade tends to worsen the conditions of owners of capital in rich countries.
C)trade tends to worsen the conditions of workers in poor countries.
D)trade tends to worsen the conditions of workers in rich countries.
E)trade is mutually beneficial to the countries that engage in it.

Question 33

The fact that articles of clothing sold in Walmart are produced by very poorly paid workers in Honduras,is a fact that if taken into account

A)would prove to economists that the Ricardian model of comparative advantage is false.
B)would prove to economists that the equal-value in trade concept summed up in the trade triangles is incorrect.
C)proves to economists that trade is a negative sum game.
D)proves to the Anti-Globalization Movement that trade is a negative sum game.
E)proves that corporations are exempt from labor standards.

Question 34

Low wages and poor working conditions in many U.S.trade partners

A)prove that the gains-from-trade arguments of the Ricardian model are false.
B)may be a fact of life,but economists don't care.
C)are facts emphasized by U.S.labor in its contract negotiations.
D)prove that the gains-from-trade arguments of the Ricardian model are true.
E)prove that international trade is exploitative.

Question 35

Most developing countries oppose including labor standards in trade agreements because

A)they believe this would involve a loss of their national sovereignty.
B)they believe this would limit their ability to export to rich markets.
C)they believe this would create an uneven playing field.
D)multinational corporations control them.
E)they do not want to improve wages for their workers.

Question 36

The evidence usually cited to prove that globalization hurts workers in developing countries

A)is inconclusive due to poor statistical design of the underlying samples.
B)is inconclusive due to the poorly funded Central Statistical Office of Mexico.
C)is inconclusive due to the ambiguous theoretical implications of the findings.
D)is conclusive.
E)does not take into account the Heckscher-Ohlin model.

Question 37

Refer to the above table.Suppose both governments offer their respective company a $10 million subsidy.

Question 38

Faced with the evidence of poor working conditions and low wages in the border maquiladoras,economists

A)shrug their shoulders and ignore the issue.
B)agree that trade theory is thus proven hollow and internally inconsistent.
C)argue that U.S.consumers should not consume lettuce.
D)argue that the poor conditions and low wages are actually improvements for the Mexican workers,and may be cited as gains-from-trade.
E)argue that Mexico's generally high overall productivity offsets these conditions.

Question 39

Working conditions for clothing workers in Bangladesh are very poor.If countries refuse to buy clothing from Bangladesh in order to encourage change,the effect is likely to be that

A)firms will be forced to comply and workers will be better off.
B)firms will refuse to comply,but workers will be better off.
C)firms will try to comply and workers will be worse off.
D)firms will try to comply and workers will be better off.
E)regardless of how firms respond,workers will be better off.

Question 40

When Japan's MITI (Ministry of International Trade and Industry)focused resources on the semiconductor industry,and in particular on Random Access Memory (RAM),it was viewed as a typically successful Japanese foray into a new dynamic strategic sector.The results,as viewed by the late 1990s

A)justified this view.
B)led to similar structuring of industrial policy in the U.S.
C)lent support to the Brander-Spencer model.
D)helped shift the focus of economists away from Japanese-style industrial policy.
E)propelled Japan into the leading country in high-tech manufacturing.

Question 41

The Shipbreakers of Alang represent a perfect example of how a developing country can apply the principles of the Heckscher-Ohlin model,since

A)shipbreaking is generally considered to be a capital-intensive operation and India,being a large country has much capital.
B)shipbreaking is a labor-intensive operation in India,and India has many workers since it is such a large country.
C)shipbreaking is a labor-intensive operation in India,and India's availability of capital per worker is less than that of its trade partners.
D)shipbreaking is a capital-intensive operation elsewhere in the world,and therefore represents a case of a factor intensity reversal.
E)India's climate lends itself to the work involved in shipbreaking.

Question 42

What is a pollution haven?

Question 43

The Shipbreakers of Alang arouse the ire of Greenpeace because of

A)India's non-repentant nuclear stance.
B)India's import-competing industrialization policies.
C)the difficulty of avoiding ship accidents between Greenpeace's sailboat and the reconstructed container ships of Alang.
D)the large amount of pollution associated with the operations at Alang.
E)their competition with capital-intensive industries.

Question 44

It is still the conventional wisdom in the U.S.that compliance with NAFTA requirements is having a deleterious effect on U.S.highway safety standards,on U.S.pollution and other environmental standards,and on U.S.jobs.What facts would proponents of an expansion of NAFTA (e.g. ,to include all of Central and South American countries)need to marshall in order to convince you?

Question 45

The Shipbreakers of Alang utilize much labor and little capital,thereby supporting the applicability of the

A)factor proportions explanation of the sources of comparative advantage.
B)specific factor theory of comparative advantage.
C)monopolistic competition theory of comparative advantage.
D)scale economies theory of comparative advantage.
E)basis of the non-dumping legislation.

Question 46

Describe the environmental Kuznets curve.