DAM SMITH AND FREE TRADE FOR IRELAND

North-south Trade in Ireland

We address the question of whether the volume of manufacturing trade between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is more or less than might be expected in the light of international experience. We estimate a gravity equation for bilateral manufacturing trade between 28 developed countries from 1970 to 1992. Using the results as benchmark, we find that North-South trade in Ireland is gr...

Beyond Trade Creation: Free Trade Agreements and Trade Disputes

This paper investigates the effects of the formation of free trade agreements (FTAs) on trade disputes. We construct a unique and comprehensive dataset on inter-country trade disputes from 1995 to 2007. The dataset covers 110 countries and 1130 trade disputes. We find that the incidences of trade disputes between two countries are positively associated with economic size, economic growth, and t...

Industrial Specialisation and Trade-. Northern Ireland and the Republic

Precis: There are many ways of studying the effects of protection on the industrial structure and trade flows of the protected economy. In this paper, we do so by comparing certain features of the economies of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland during the mid-'sixties. At that time, the Republic was a highly protected economy and consequently would be expected to be much less speciali...

Free Trade and the Environment

what should environmentalists say about free trade? Many environmentalists object to free trade by appealing the " Race to the Bottom Argument. " This argument is inconclusive, but there are reasons to worry about unrestricted free trade's environmental effects nonetheless; the rules of trade embodied in institutions such as the World Trade Organization may be unjustifiable. Programs to compens...

WTO, Free Trade, and Oligopolies