Trade Theory

Intra-Industry International Trade

Standard trade theory and its deviations

The classical theory of international trade can be traced back to the founding father of capitalism Adam Smith: Smith's 1776 Wealth of Nations theorized that free trade would be beneficial to all nations. Smith stated that much like merchants, nations should specialize in the particular goods and services which they could produce most efficiently and trade with other nations who could produce alternate goods and services equally efficiently. Thus free trade resulted in advantages for both trading parties. Smith's theory was later fleshed out by David Ricardo in his Principles of Economics. Riccardo stated that free trade could optimize efficiency for every country on a global level by reducing the inefficiencies generated by the excess resources involved in producing the goods and services the nation was not suited to produce (Sen 2010: 2).

This common wisdom remained relatively consistent...
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