Douglas A Irwin

Should the United States be open to commerce with other countries, or should it protect domestic industries from foreign competition? This question has been the source of bitter political conflict throughout American history. Such conflict was inevitable, James Madison argued in The Federalist Papers, because trade policy involves clashing economic interests. The struggle between the winners and losers from trade has always been fierce because dollars...

"One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1996" Douglas A. Irwin is Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College. He is the editor of Jacob Viner: Essays on the Intellectual History of Economics (Princeton). About two hundred years ago, largely as a result of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, free trade achieved an intellectual status unrivaled by any other doctrine in the field of economics. What accounts for the success of free trade against...

Overview: The recent economic crisis-with the plunge in the stock market, numerous bank failures and widespread financial distress, declining output and rising unemployment-has been reminiscent of the Great Depression. The Depression of the 1930s was marked by the spread of protectionist trade policies, which contributed to a collapse in world trade. Although policymakers today claim that they will resist the protectionist temptation, recessions...