普格尔《国际贸易（第17版）》 英文手册Pugel_17e_chap002_IM.docxVIP

PAGE PAGE 10 ? 2016 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any manner. This document may not be copied, scanned, duplicated, forwarded, distributed, or posted on a website, in whole or part. Chapter 2 The Basic Theory Using Demand and Supply Overview This chapter indicates why we study theories of international trade and presents the basic theory using supply and demand curves. Trade is important to individual consumers, to workers and other factor owners, to firms, and therefore to the whole economy. The box “Trade Is Important” provides useful data about the types of products traded and the increasing role of trade in national economies. Trade is also contentious, with perpetual battles over government policies toward trade. To understand the controversy, we need to develop theories of why people trade as they do. It is useful to organize the analysis of international trade by contrasting a world of no trade with a world of free trade, leaving analysis of intermediate cases (e.g., non-prohibitive tariffs) for Chapter 8-14. The analysis seeks to answer four key questions about international trade: Why do countries trade? What determines the pattern of trade? How does trade affect production and consumption in each country? What are the gains (or losses) for a country as a whole from trading? What are the effects of trade on different groups in a country? Are there groups that gain and other groups that lose? Theories of international trade provide answers to these four questions. Basic demand and supply analysis can be used to provide early answers to these four questions, as well as to introduce concepts that can be used in more elaborate theories. Using motorbikes as an example, the chapter first reviews the basic analysis of both demand (the demand curve and the role of the product’s price, other influences on quantity demanded, movements along the demand curve a