IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ausecr/v18y1985i3p70-81.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trade and Industry Policy

Author

Listed:
  • P. J. Forsyth

Abstract

This article consists of a review of changes in trade and industry policy, along with discussions of the determinants of change and the major problem areas. Policy between 1965 and 1985 is summarised, and the growth of unemployment in the 1970s is suggested as a key determinant of change. Higher protection in certain industries, and moves to more quantitative methods ot protection can be related to unemployment, in Australia as in other countries. Theory and empirical evidence suggest that protection is likely to prove ineffective in reducing unemployment. The reliance on protection in particular cases is ascribed to a wish by governments to preserve specific jobs, not to increase overall employment. Policy can have a role in facilitating or restricting structural change which can arise from several sources, such as changing trade patterns and preferences. The devices of policy are considered briefly to determine whether they are likely to facilitate change or not. It is concluded that they often provide incentives to avoid change. The scale problem is considered, and it is suggested that the cost of protection could be high in industries subject to significant scale economies. Scale and adjustments are considered in the light of two industries, motor vehicles and whitegoods, and the role of industry plans is examined. The actuality of trade and industry policy often differs from announced intentions, and this ambiguity can give rise to uncertainty which itself has a cost.

Suggested Citation

  • P. J. Forsyth, 1985. "Trade and Industry Policy," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 18(3), pages 70-81, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ausecr:v:18:y:1985:i:3:p:70-81
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8462.1985.tb00291.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8462.1985.tb00291.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-8462.1985.tb00291.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. F.H. Gruen, 1985. "The Federal Budget: How Much Difference Do Elections Make?," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 18(3), pages 36-49, September.
    2. Peter Cory & Mark Horridge, 1985. "A Harris-style miniature version of ORANI," Centre of Policy Studies/IMPACT Centre Working Papers op-54, Victoria University, Centre of Policy Studies/IMPACT Centre.
    3. Corden, W. M., 1971. "The substitution problem in the theory of effective protection," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 37-57, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Louis-Pascal Mahé, 2004. "Compte rendu d'ouvrage - Les apports de l’économie rurale des 20 dernières années à travers le Tome 2 du Handbook of Agricultural Economics," Post-Print hal-01201083, HAL.
    2. Tangermann, S., 1976. "Weltmarktpreise und EG-Agrarpreispolitik," Proceedings “Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.”, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA), vol. 13.
    3. Ian Manning, 1985. "Continuity and Change in Australian Economic Policy: The Social Welfare Services," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 18(3), pages 116-129, September.
    4. Kaludura Abayasiri-Silva & Mark Horridge, 1998. "Economies of Scale and Imperfect Competition in an Applied General Equilibrium Model of the Australian Economy," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Kenneth J. Arrow & Yew-Kwang Ng & Xiaokai Yang (ed.), Increasing Returns and Economic Analysis, chapter 14, pages 307-334, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Anderson, Kym & Kurzweil, Marianne & Martin, William J. & Sandri, Damiano & Valenzuela, Ernesto, 2008. "Methodology for Measuring Distortions to Agricultural Incentives," Agricultural Distortions Working Paper Series 48326, World Bank.
    6. Marijke J. D. Bos & Gonzague Vannoorenberghe, 2018. "Total factor productivity spillovers from trade reforms in India," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 51(2), pages 549-606, May.
    7. Anders, Sven & Harsche, Johannes & Herrmann, Roland & Salhofer, Klaus, 2004. "Regional income effects of producer support under the CAP," Cahiers d'Economie et de Sociologie Rurales (CESR), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), vol. 73.
    8. Stéphane Bécuwe & Bertrand Blancheton, 2020. "French textile specialisation in long run perspective (1836–1938): trade policy as industrial policy," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 62(6), pages 891-914, August.
    9. Kym Anderson & Rod Tyers, 1986. "Agricultural Policies of Industrial Countries and their Effects on Traditional Food Exporters," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 62(4), pages 385-399, December.
    10. M.A. Marais, 1992. "The Cost of Protection to Western Australia," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 92-27, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    11. Naranpanawa, Athula & Arora, Rashmi, 2014. "Does Trade Liberalization Promote Regional Disparities? Evidence from a Multiregional CGE Model of India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 339-349.
    12. Massimiliano Calì & Alen Mulabdic, 2017. "Trade and civil conflict: Revisiting the cross-country evidence," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 195-232, February.
    13. Lindland, Jostein, 1997. "The impact of the Uruguay Round on tariff escalation in agricultural products," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 22(6), pages 487-500, December.
    14. Van Kooten, G. C. & Spriggs, John & Schmitz, Andrew, 1989. "The Impact of Canadian Commodity Stabilization Programs on Risk Reduction and the Supply of Agricultural Commodities," Working Papers 244037, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.
    15. Etzaz Ahmad & Maha Ahmad & Ghulam Saghir, 2021. "An Analysis of Pakistan’s Agricultural Commodities based on Effective Protection Rate and Its Decomposition," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 60(3), pages 235-249.
    16. Herrmann, Roland, 1988. "How does economic development and import dependency affect agricultural price protection? A pooled cross-country and time-series analysis for the wheat sector," Kiel Working Papers 342, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    17. J Fedderke & P Vaze, 2001. "THE NATURE OF SOUTH AFRICA'S TRADE PATTERNS BY ECONOMIC SECTOR, AND THE EXTENT OF TRADE LIBERALIZATION DURING THE COURSE OF THE 1990′s," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 69(3), pages 436-478, September.
    18. Robert Wolfe, 2021. "Yours is bigger than mine! Could an index like the Producer Subsidy Equivalent help in understanding the comparative incidence of industrial subsidies?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(2), pages 328-345, February.
    19. Carlos Uribe-Terán & Diego F. Grijalva & Ivan Gachet, 2025. "The contractionary effects of protectionist trade policy," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 161(3), pages 821-868, August.
    20. Kanika Pathania & Aditya Bhattacharjea, 2020. "Inverted Duty Structures and the Paradox of Negative Effective Protection in India, 2000–2014," Foreign Trade Review, , vol. 55(2), pages 139-167, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ausecr:v:18:y:1985:i:3:p:70-81. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/mimelau.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.