International Economics [antikvár]

The fourth edition has been reorganized in response to a modestbut perceptible demand from instructors. The earlier arbitrary organiza-tion based on the balance of payments is now discarded, and the bookis divided fundamentally into halves, of three parts each, correspondingto a semester of international trade and one of international monetaryproblems. This means that the balance-of-payments chapter, which usedto be something of a stumbling block for some students, has beenrelegated from pride of place as Chapter 2 to a position in the rear ranks.Other changes are the addition of explicit chapters on trade theory andcommercial policy for less developed countries, and one on economicintegration; the elimination of the separate chapter on exchange control;and the telescoping of material on disequilibrium. The result in myjudgement is a more orderly, logical, and readily comprehended treat-ment. The instructor limited to a one-semester course will be guided byhis own interests and requirements. My own suggestion, for what it maybe worth, is that such a semester include fourteen chapters, and inparticular Chapters 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, and 27.The gains from this reorganization have been partly compromisedby the intrusion of an idiosyncratic bias in the treatment of balance-of-payments equilibrium and international financial intermediation"personal piffle," to use a phrase of Paul Samuelson, which he believesshould be rigorously excluded from works like this. The major taskthroughout, however, is to incorporate the advances in the theory ofinternational trade and finance to the extent that I am able to compre-hend them. The amount of purely institutional description of suchagencies as the International Fund and Bank has been reduced in theinterest of more analysis.The level of treatment remains high but nonmathematical, exceptfor the appendices on the Marshall-Lerner condition and the foreign-trade multiplier, prepared, for this edition, by Professor MiltiadesChacholiades. This is not so much the result of adroit marketing as oflimited capacity. But while recognizing that advanced students must goforward and work in abstract formulations, I am persuaded that thevisual approach through geometry, related to historical and institutionaldiscussion, retains an important place. It enables the general student tovii