Review of Kevin O'Rourke and Ronald Findlay "Power and plenty. Trade, war and world economy in the second millenium"

Power and plenty: Trade, war and the world economy in the second millennium

The transformation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) into the World Trade Organization (WTO) on January 1, 1995, provides an opportune moment to take stock of the GATT's achievements and shortcomings alongside those of its 50-year-old sister international institutions set up at Bretton Woods. It is temptingly easy to attribute the astounding postwar economic expansion, particularly when set against the turbulent interwar period when multilateral efforts to contain protectionist pressures failed miserably, to the economic policies embodied in the GATT and to the initial stability provided by the Bretton Woods institutions. Yet a closer look at precisely what the GATT accomplished in its first decade suggests that trade liberalization under its auspices alone is far from sufficient to explain the postwar economic boom.

The GATT in Historical Perspective

The economic history of Latin America since independence: Bulmer-Thomas, Victor (1994), Cambridge University Press (New York and Cambridge). xv + 485 pp

https://spire.sciencespo.fr/hdl:/2441/6flqrv4et09btppk9s58qgp979/resources/2018-cage-and-gadenne-tax-revenues-and-the-fiscal-cost-of-trade-liberalization-1792-2006.pdf

Tax revenues and the fiscal cost of trade liberalization, 1792–2006

Many papers have explored the relationship between average tariff rates and economic growth when theory suggests that the structure of protection is what should matter. We therefore explore the relationship between economic growth and agricultural tariffs, industrial tariffs, and revenue tariffs for a sample of relatively well-developed countries between 1875 and 1913. Industrial tariffs were positively correlated with growth, and agricultural tariffs were generally negatively correlated with growth, although the results are not robust. Revenue tariffs were not related to growth at all.

The Structure of Protection and Growth in the Late Nineteenth Century

The Cobden-Chevalier Treaty of 1860 is regarded as central turning point in nineteenth-century trade policy, inaugurating a free trade era in Western Europe. We reexamine this story and put it into global perspective with a new database covering more than 7,500 data points for 11 categories of manufactures in 41 countries and colonies around the world between 1846 and 1880. It reveals that bilateralism after 1860 reinforced a process already underway before. Nevertheless, we highlight that trade liberalization was a global phenomenon over most of our period, so that the prominent British case appears as typical rather than exceptional.

/pdf/how-much-trade-liberalization-was-there-in-the-world-before-4ah0tiynfj.pdf

Felipe Tâmega Fernandes

Papers

How Much Trade Liberalization Was There in the World Before and After Cobden-Chevalier?