A Quiz

by Don Boudreaux on January 28, 2011

in Trade

Here’s a quiz.  For each of the five following passages, guess the name of the economist who penned it.  (Answers below)



2. The idea that Third World competition threatens living standards in advanced countries seems straightforward. Suppose that somebody has learned to do something that used to be my exclusive specialty. Maybe he or she isn’t quite as good at it as I am but is willing to work for a fraction of my wage.  Isn’t it obvious that I am either going to have to accept a lower standard of living or be out of a job?  That, in essence, is the view of those who fear that Western wage rates must fall as the Third World develops.



3. If you think in terms of models, however, you know that the case for free trade is profound, but also conditional: it depends, among other things, on having sufficient policy levers to achieve more or less full employment simultaneously with free trade.




5. For the bulk of our economics students, our objective should be to equip them to respond intelligently to popular discussion of economic issues.  A lot of that discussion will be about international trade, so international trade should be an important part of the curriculum.What is crucial, however, is to understand that the level of public discussion is extremely primitive. Indeed, it has sunk so low that people who repeat silly clich6s often imagine themselves to be sophisticated.  That means that our courses need to drive home as clearly as possible the basics.  Offer curves and Rybczinski effects are lovely things.  What most students need to be prepared for, however, is a world in which TV “experts,” best-selling authors, and $30,000-a-day consultants do not understand budget constraints, let alone comparative advantage.

Answers: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

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