Trade and Trade Policy for Development [antikvár]

The effects of international trade on underdevelopedcountries pose many problems of both practice and theory.Despite much discussion, however, there is little agree-ment on what in fact an adequate trade theory for under-developed areas would be. Strongly formulated opposingviews have been advanced, and, in this situation, some ofthe texts on development economics conveniently bypassthe issue by employing vague generalities.There are many reasons for this state of affairs. Tobegin with, there exists a neatly woven trade theorytheneoclassical trade theory, with a number of modificationsto allow the incorporation of Keynesian theory. Although* originally formulated to explain the effects of trade oncountries that happened to be industrially advanced, thistheory exerts a powerful influence on attempts to theor-ize about the trade of other types of countries. Althoughit is not self-evident that the neoclassical theory isinadequate for this purpose, many economists haveconsidered it inapplicable to the conditions of under-developed countries and have put forward a variety ofalternative theoriesalternative not only to neoclassicaltheory but also to one another. The ensuing confusion isincreased for two additional reasons. First, even if neo-classical theory can be criticized, it is nonetheless ob-vious that elements of it are of the greatest significancefor underdeveloped countries; the rejection of neoclas-sical theory thus cannot be carried out indiscriminately.Second, underdeveloped nations do not constitute a homo-geneous group the conditions of which can be handledeasily in a single theory.The present study represents, hopefully, a link in thechain of attempts to provide a more secure theoreticalbasis for thinking about trade and underdeveloped coun-