A Political Economy Appraisal of the ‘Employment-Tariff’ Proposition

Abstract

In the previous chapter, I demonstrated that: orthodox international trade theory can be extended to include unemployment without damaging any of its basic propositions; the proposition that import restrictions will promote economic expansion is correct, albeit only in very limited circumstances; but import controls are, in principle, inferior to alternative policies. To be brief, my overall conclusion was that the ‘employment-tariff’ proposition makes theoretical sense, albeit not in generally valid terms, but the justification for its use as a policy recommendation depends entirely on practical considerations: it does not flow naturally from the theoretical base.