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Free Trade and Protection

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The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics
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Abstract

The question of ‘free trade versus protection’ is one of the oldest and most controversial issues in economics. The present article will not attempt to review this controversy from the standpoint of the history of doctrine, nor will it attempt to trace the evolution of trade policy in particular countries. Its focus is on the analytic aspects of the problem as discussed in the modern literature, which can be taken as dating from the seminal investigations of Samuelson (1939, 1962), in the tradition of Paretian welfare economics.

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© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

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Findlay, R. (2018). Free Trade and Protection. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_864

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