Pop Internationalism
Author: Paul Krugman
List Price: $20.00
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0262611333
Publisher: MIT Press (07 February, 1997)
Sales Rank: 96,697
Average Customer Rating: 4.15 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 4 out of 5
The reviewer from south salem new york is wrong about Krugma
An angry reviewer from South Salem, New York, criticizes Krugman for ignoring "the serious matter of intra-industry trade". Something that is not true. The same reader gives us his/her personal definition of the concept, "Intra-industry trade means a condition in which countries export to one another the same product". That definition is fundamentally wrong! Let me give you an example of the real meaning of the concept: the US sells GM sedans to Japan, and Japan sells Toyota sedans to the US consumers. Are they the same good? Consumers don't think so. In order to make their decisions, consumers take in consideration the products' "differentiated attributes" to determine "value" according to their personal preferences and financial constrains. Why do we buy different books? Why do we wear different cloths? Why don't we all have iguanas as pets? Apparently, the reviewer from South Salem, NY, does not understand much about economics, or even about how or why he/she makes his/her economic choices. Thus, disregard his/her comments about Krugman's book, and take them as the angry words of a fundamentalist against the "evil" force of international trade.
Rating: 5 out of 5
A great book -- no matter what twits think
Another reviewer has mentioned that Krugman doesn't take into account that comparative advantages can change over time -- viz, that countries can actually create advantages. He cites Japan's auto industry as an example. Granting for the sake of argument that Japan, Inc. was good at creating certain industries in which it did well, I note a few flaws with his argument. 1) It's kind of outdated to point to Japan as an exemplar of superb economic policymaking. 2) Japan gave up many other things in order to "create" their advantages. 3) Competition in the long run improved the American auto industry. 4) It would be ridiculous to think that Krugman doesn't know about the impact of governments creating advantages in certain industries -- HE INVENTED THAT THEORY!!! (An oversimplification, obviously). Go back and read about the new strategic trade theory -- that's exactly what he's talking about.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Awesome book
This is a great book - applying sound economics to our real-world policy issues.Krugman's successful attempt to expose the flawed argument of the likes of Lester Thurow is wonderful. People like Thurow are more interested in bashing certain countries (e.g., Japan, Europe) and/or apologizing for others (e.g., People's Republic of China), with no economic/academic consistency. Hard to believe Thurow passes as an "economist"...
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