International Trade and Resource Allocation (Advanced Textbooks in Economics)

The primary aim of this work is to present the modern theory of international trade within a unified framework, placing the traditional two-dimensional model and its simple generalizations in proper perspective. This general and unified analysis is based upon microeconomic principles and the use of modern duality theory. Topics are thereby examined in terms of cost, expenditure, indirect utility and gross national production, rather than production, direct utility and transformation functions. When using such factors, concise models can be formulated, highlighting the assumed economic behavior and allowing easy derivation of results. Although the book emphasizes the theoretical aspects of international trade, it also links this theory to some current empirical research. Each chapter has a selection of problems for solution, which include proofs of assertions within the text, special cases, and extensions of the analysis.