IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fip/fedder/y1994iqiip35-51.html

Is NAFTA economic integration?

Author

Listed:
  • William C. Gruben
  • John H. Welch

Abstract

Most economists agree that trade liberalization raises incomes and living standards. To achieve trade liberalization, though, countries must sometimes first reach trade agreements. And trade agreements, as William Gruben and John Welch observe, may intertwine elements of both liberalization and protectionism. As an example, Gruben and Welch examine the negotiation process that preceded passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement. ; Is NAFTA economic integration? Although some authors think so, Gruben and Welch believe that interpreting NAFTA purely as economic integration is misleading. A more useful way to interpret NAFTA, they claim, is to start by recognizing it as the latest synthesis of an ongoing conflict between those who support trade liberalization and those who want trade protectionism. NAFTA offers broad-based trade openings, but it still contains restrictively protectionist components. In considering the efforts of trade liberalization advocates and trade protectionists, the authors also attempt to show how members of these pressure groups form alliances, disguise their efforts, and otherwise attempt to achieve their goals.

Suggested Citation

  • William C. Gruben & John H. Welch, 1994. "Is NAFTA economic integration?," Economic and Financial Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, issue Q II, pages 35-51.
  • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedder:y:1994:i:qii:p:35-51
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.dallasfed.org/~/media/documents/research/er/1994/er9402c.pdf
    File Function: Full Text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Bellew & Robert H. Schnorbus, 1992. "NAFTA and the auto industry: boon or bane?," Chicago Fed Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, issue Dec.
    2. Brown, D.K., 1992. "The Impact of a North American Free Trade Area: Applied General Equilibrium Models," Working Papers 311, Research Seminar in International Economics, University of Michigan.
    3. Drusilla K. Brown & Alan V. Deardorff & Robert M. Stern, 2011. "A North American Free Trade Agreement: Analytical Issues and a Computational Assessment," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Robert M Stern (ed.), Comparative Advantage, Growth, And The Gains From Trade And Globalization A Festschrift in Honor of Alan V Deardorff, chapter 40, pages 557-575, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    4. Edward E. Leamer, 1992. "Wage Effects of A U.S. - Mexican Free Trade Agreement," NBER Working Papers 3991, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Backus, David K. & Kehoe, Patrick J. & Kehoe, Timothy J., 1992. "In search of scale effects in trade and growth," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 377-409, December.
    6. Cropper, Maureen L & Oates, Wallace E, 1992. "Environmental Economics: A Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 30(2), pages 675-740, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cletus C. Coughlin & David C. Wheelock, 1995. "Lessons from the United States and European Community for the integration of high and low income economies," Working Papers 1995-007, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

    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. Sven Arndt, 1996. "North American Free Trade: An assessment," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 77-92, January.
    2. Robinson, Sherman & Thierfelder, Karen, 2002. "Trade liberalisation and regional integration: the search for large numbers," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 46(4), pages 1-20.
    3. McDaniel, Christine A. & Balistreri, Edward J., 2002. "A Discussion on Armington Trade Substitution Elasticities," Working Papers 15856, United States International Trade Commission, Office of Economics.
    4. Anderson, James E. & Yotov, Yoto V., 2016. "Terms of trade and global efficiency effects of free trade agreements, 1990–2002," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 279-298.
    5. Christine A. McDaniel & Laurie‐Ann Agama, 2003. "The NAFTA Preference and US‐Mexico Trade: Aggregate‐Level Analysis," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(7), pages 939-955, July.
    6. Kevin P. Gallagher & Frank Ackerman & Luke Ney, "undated". "Economic Analysis in Environmental Reviews of Trade Agreements: Assessing the North American Experience," GDAE Working Papers 02-01, GDAE, Tufts University.
    7. John Asafu‐Adjaye & Renuka Mahadevan, 2009. "Regional Trade Agreements versus Global Trade Liberalisation: Implications for a Small Island Developing State," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 509-529, March.
    8. Ramon Moreno, 1993. "NAFTA and U.S. jobs," FRBSF Economic Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue jun24.
    9. Nigel Grimwade & David G. Mayes & Jiao Wang, 2011. "Estimating the Effects of Integration," Chapters, in: Miroslav N. Jovanović (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Integration, Volume III, chapter 13, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    10. Frans P. Vries & Nick Hanley, 2016. "Incentive-Based Policy Design for Pollution Control and Biodiversity Conservation: A Review," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 63(4), pages 687-702, April.
    11. Sam Fankhauser & Cameron Hepburn, 2009. "Carbon markets in space and time," GRI Working Papers 3, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    12. Cinzia Di Novi, 2007. "An Economic Evaluation of Life-Style and Air-pollution-related Damages: Results from the BRFSS," JEPS Working Papers 07-001, JEPS.
    13. Managi, Shunsuke & Opaluch, James J. & Jin, Di & Grigalunas, Thomas A., 2006. "Stochastic frontier analysis of total factor productivity in the offshore oil and gas industry," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 204-215, November.
    14. Bonacina, Monica & Gulli`, Francesco, 2007. "Electricity pricing under "carbon emissions trading": A dominant firm with competitive fringe model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 4200-4220, August.
    15. Quintano, Claudio & Mazzocchi, Paolo & Rocca, Antonella, 2021. "Evaluation of the eco-efficiency of territorial districts with seaport economic activities," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    16. Oliver Fromm, 2000. "Ecological Structure and Functions of Biodiversity as Elements of Its Total Economic Value," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 16(3), pages 303-328, July.
    17. Bruno S. Frey & Alois Stutzer, 2006. "Environmental Morale and Motivation," CREMA Working Paper Series 2006-17, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    18. Shouqiang Wang & Peng Sun & Francis de Véricourt, 2016. "Inducing Environmental Disclosures: A Dynamic Mechanism Design Approach," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 64(2), pages 371-389, April.
    19. Brita Bye & Karine Nyborg, 1999. "The Welfare Effects of Carbon Policies: Grandfathered Quotas versus Differentiated Taxes," Discussion Papers 261, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    20. Panos Hatzipanayotou & Sajal Lahiri & Michael S. Michael, 2002. "Can cross–border pollution reduce pollution?," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(4), pages 805-818, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;

    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:fip:fedder:y:1994:i:qii:p:35-51. 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: Amy Chapman (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbdaus.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.