Nation-States in an International Framework: An Economist's Perspective

This is a problem that Richard Cooper has noted for the US economic policy.

Michealy Michael , “Exports and Growth: An Empirical Investigation,” Journal of Development Economics, Vol. 4, 1977, pp. 49–53.

Desai Padma , “Alternative Measures of Import Shares: Theory and Estimates for the Soviet Union,” Journal of International Economics, Vol. 25, November 1988.

Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, The American Challenge (New York: Atheneum, 1968).

See, for example, the striking recent example of Honda, an early investor in the United States announcing a four-year plan to expand its US production so that it can export roughly 50000 cars back to Japan, The New York Times, September 18, 1987, p. D1.

Lipsey Robert E. Kravis Irving B. , “The Competitiveness and Comparative Advantage of US Multinationals, 1957–1983”, NBER Working Paper No. 2051, 1986.

Blomström Magnus , Swedish Multinationals Abroad (New York: NBER, 1986).

Borner Silvio , Internationalization of Industry (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1986).

On Sweden, see also the valuable research of Birgitta Swedenborg, Svensk Industri Utlandet: En Analys Ar Drivkrafter Och Effekter (Stockholm: Industrieris Utrednignsinstitut, 1982). On Switzerland, important findings are reported and analyzed in Silvio Borner and F. Wehrle, Die Sechste Schweitz (Zurich: Orell Fussli, 1984).

Till now the LDCs were exempted from GATT obligations on market-access by their S&D treatment and could invoke Article XVII(B) to escape any market obligations. It is altogether improbable that just as this is being questioned for LDCs, the United States will agree to S&D for the Soviet Union!.

See the recent pamphlet on the subject by Williamson J. Lesard D. , Capital Flight and Third World Debt (Washington, DC: Institute for International Economics, 1988) and especially the excellent article by Sunil Gulati therein; and Gulati, “Capital Flight from Developing Countries”, Journal of International Affairs, 1989 (forthcoming).

I should draw the reader's attention to my recent book, Protectionism (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1988), from which I have drawn the five figures reprinted here, for further discussion of the trends towards globalization in the world economy and their implications.