This is a key year for the evolution of international markets. The global economy is experiencing the most severe downturn since the thirties, it is temporarily leaving a path of sustained growth that characterized the last decades, and is facing an impressive decline of trade between countries. Banks are going bankrupt, the stock market has crashed, rms are going out of bu- ness or drastically reducing their production and exports, workers are being red and investment in new business creation or innovation is shrinking. Meanwhile, consumers con dence has dropped at its minimum, aggregate demand has been declining for months and expansionary policies and int- national coordination have failed to counteract the crisis until now. It is quite likely that all this will change sooner or later, but at the end of this crisis our understanding of the macroeconomy may change as well. In front of these crucial events, this book is not an attempt at proposing a radically new way of interpreting macroeconomic phenomena, and, as a m- ter of fact, it is not even a book on macroeconomic theory. My more modest goal is to collect a number of insights derived from recent research on the role of competition and innovation in the analysis of three topics: business cycles, trade and growth through innovations.

There are few industries in modern market economies that do not manufacture differentiated products. This book provides a systematic explanation and analysis of the widespread prevalence of this important category of products. The authors concentrate on models in which product selection is endogenous. In the first four chapters they consider models that try to predict the level of product differentiation that would emerge in situations of market equilibrium. These market equilibria with differentiated products are characterised and then compared with social welfare optima. Particular attention is paid to the distinction between horizontal and vertical differentiation as well as to the related issues of product quality and durability. This book brings together the most important theoretical contributions to these topics in a succinct and coherent manner. One of its major strengths is the way in which it carefully sets out the basic intuition behind the formal results. It will be useful to advanced undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in industrial economics and microeconomic theory.

This three-volume handbook includes state-of-the-art surveys in different areas of neoclassical production economics. Volumes 1 and 2 cover theoretical and methodological issues only. Volume 3 includes surveys of empirical applications in different areas like manufacturing, agriculture, banking, energy and environment, and so forth.

A theoretical analysis of international trade and industrial policy, developing and using new models of trade with imperfect competition. Modeling of imperfect competition within international trade has been difficult until recent breakthroughs in this area, which have provided a more realistic view of the world economy. The book builds on the advances provided by such tools as game theory and the theory of monopolistic competition. The first section covers broad and basic trade issues which arise under imperfect competition. Section two examines implications for trade policy covering issues such as strategic trade policy in static and dynamic settings. Section three deals with various structural issues, such as optimal choice of trade liberalizing policies, the formation of trade blocks, and open dualistic economy with externalities.

Once unquestionably the world's leading economic and industrial power, the United States now views with growing dismay the impressive industrial efficiency, vigorous work ethics, and large American holdings of various other nations. Is the United States truly lagging in its ability to compete effectively in world markets? Concern over this question has been voiced in both the business and government sectors, as well as by academic economists. A recent conference, sponsored by the National Bureau of Economic Research, explored the effects of trade policies on a nation's ability to compete in international markets. In Trade Policies for International Competitiveness, Robert C. Feenstra collects seven papers from the conference, each accompanied by discussants' comments, and adds a helpful introduction. Some of the issues considered by contributors are effects of macroeconomic and strategic foreign policies on competitiveness; the recent influx of foreign direct investment in the United States, primarily from Japan; the extent to which Japanese trade patterns are a reflection of underlying factor and endowments rather than trade barriers; and the market structure of Canadian industries, including applications for ongoing U.S.-Canadian free trade negotiations. Topical and provocative, these papers will be of value to economists, policymakers, and those in the business world.

Sunk Costs and Market Structure bridges the gap between the new generation of game theoretic models that has dominated the industrial organization literature over the past ten years and the traditional empirical agenda of the subject as embodied in the structure-conduct-performance paradigm developed by Joe S. Bain and his successors.

The purpose of this study is to identify conditions under which renewed international lending will benefit both the developed and the developing countries. Our analysis will evaluate how the presence of terms of trade adjustment and distorted credit markets affect the conditions for the existence of beneficial lending. We demonstrate that in the presence of endogenous terms of trade adjustment, there are cases in which a competitive international banking system may not revitalize lending for investment purposes, even if such renewed lending is socially desirable. Renewed lending may require the appropriate conditionality, and the presence of endogenous terms of trade adjustment puts greater weight on investment conditionality.

This book expounds trade theory emphasizing that a trading equilibrium is general rather than partial, and is often best modelled using dual or envelope functions. This yields a compact treatment of standard theory, clarifies some errors and confusions, and produces some new departures. In particular, the book (i) gives unified treatments of comparative statics and welfare, (ii) sheds new light on the factor-price equalization issue, (iii) treats the modern specific-factor model in parallel with the usual Heckscher-Ohlin one, (iv) analyses the balance of payments in general equilibrium with flexible and fixed prices, (v) studies imperfect competition and intra-industry trade.

In recent decades, new endogenous growth theory has become popular but the ideas are not new. They go back at least as far as Adam Smith, and the subsequent contributions made notably by Alfred Marshall and Allyn Young. This book critically discusses and provides an historical perspective to the entire spectrum of endogenous growth theories starting with Adam Smith and ending with Paul Romer. It fills an important gap in the literature. While contributions of individual authors are readily available, there is no comprehensive study on the subject covering such a vast ground, critically discussing these authors in a comprehensive framework. It collates all the arguments and economic viewpoints in one collection, providing both the seasoned economist and a graduate economist with a critical comparison of origin, mechanisms, conclusions, and policy implications of these models.