EC6012 and EC4024 students, have a listen to Prof. Russell Roberts' podcast on trade. This is a really deep, scholarly, and thoughtful summary of the ideas behind trade. Listen to it, you'll get smarter.

Roberts on Trade

Click below to get the links mentioned in Robert's talk (these are from the podcast site)

Books

The Choice: A Fable of Free Trade and Protectionism, by Russ Roberts. (Chapter 1-3 at no charge.) Available in print at Amazon

• • An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, byAdam Smith. Specifically, Book I, Chapter 1, "Of the Division of Labor,and Book I, Chapter 3, "That the Division of Labour is Limited by the Extent of the Market. On Econlib.
  • "Before Tea, Thank Your Lucky Stars,"by Robert Frank, New York Times, April 25, 2009.
  • "Treasure Island: The Power of Trade Part I. The Seemingly Simple Story of Comparative Advantage," by Russ Roberts. November 6, 2006, from Ten Key Ideas at the Library of Economics and Liberty.
  • "Treasure Island: The Power of Trade. Part II. How Trade Transforms Our Standard of Living" by Russ Roberts. December 4, 2006, from Ten Key Ideas at the Library of Economics and Liberty.
  • "A Brief History of the Concept of Comparative Advantage," by Morgan Rose. August 6, 2001, at the Library of Economics and Liberty
  • "Globalization as Framed by the Two Logics of Trade," by James Buchanan and Yong Yoon, The Independent Review, v.VI, n.3, Winter 2002.
  • "A Smithean Perspective on Increasing Returns," by James Buchanan and Yong Yoon, Journal of the History of Economic Thought. (2000), 22:43-48 Cambridge University Press (requires payment)
  • Opportunity Cost, by David R. Henderson. Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.
  • David Ricardo. Biography. Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.
  • "Comparative Advantage," by Lauren Landsburg at the Library of Economics and Liberty.
  • "Frontier House" at PBS.
  • Russ Roberts, Meet Paul Krugman, by Arnold Kling. EconLog post , February 8, 2010.
  • Luck, Wealth, and Immigration, by David Henderson. EconLog post , April 27, 2009.
  • Munger on the Division of Labor. EconTalk podcast.
  • Romer on Growth. EconTalk podcast.
  • Don Boudreaux on Globalization and Trade Deficits. EconTalk podcast.
  • Don Boudreaux on the Economics of "Buy Local". EconTalk podcast.
  • Robert Frank on Economics Education and the Economic Naturalist. EconTalk podcast.
  • Spence on Growth . EconTalk podcast.

Books:Articles:Web Pages:Podcasts and Blogs:

8 Responses to “Fantastic Podcast on Trade”

1. Brian O' Hanlon

   28/03/2010 at 9:02 am

   Stephen,

   I often wonder why the PIIGS nations in Europe cannot lever the fact they are in an EU, and achieve some of the multiplier effects described so well in prof. Roberts' podcast. I mean, if you think of all of the technical, off-shore and technology/scientific there exists between Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain, it is a pity there is not much more cooperation.

   While listening to prof. Roberts' podcast, I kept thinking about a book, The Machine That Changed the World : The Story of Lean Production, by James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones, Daniel Roos. The book talks about the early manufacture of cars, in small workshops in the beginning. Followed by the mass production ideas of Ford and so on.

2. Stephen

   28/03/2010 at 8:11 pm

   Hi Brian,
   I think Roberts would argue that all the benefits from the establishment of the single market have already been gained in the 90s--these were a main driver of the Celtic Tiger. What would be really interesting is the African Union, or a Maghreb union, banking on the benefits further integration might bring.

3. Brian O' Hanlon

   28/03/2010 at 9:46 pm

   I have recommended this Bill Moyers interview with Mike Davis before at the Irish Economy blog site. I think it is a fairly good complement to the lecture by prof. Russell Roberts. What Davis explains very well is the relationship between intellectual discussion and socialism in the United States. Though not very strong politically, the socialists did nonetheless make important contributions to the debtate in the 1930s. Possibly this more than anything else, helped to unlock the productive output of the US and drag it through the 1930s.

   http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/03202009/profile.html

   Mark Graban who works in health care in the United States has put together a really neat set of podcasts here:

   http://www.leanblog.org/podcast/audio-podcast/

   Guys like Norman Bodek and Jim Womack are really fascinating to listen to, and do possibly build upon that same tradition of relating intelligently to the workforce, which Mike Davis talks about. It is important to think about this stuff I suppose, given all of the time the Irish government and unions seem to spend banging their heads off a wall these days. For all the column inches I have read in broadsheets about 'productivity increases' and so forth, I am darned, if I have read even one decent article explaining what that might mean for Ireland's situation.

4. Brian O' Hanlon

   28/03/2010 at 9:57 pm

   Do check out David Wetzel's extremely sophisticated analysis of Ricardo's theory on rent etc, video recorded by Feasta at Bolton Street DIT a while back. He bases his story on Robinson Crusoe and hunting for rabbits on the island.

   Beating the Bust: Land Value Taxation by Dave Wetzel 10th April 2008.

   http://www.feasta-multimedia.org/index.php

5. Brian O' Hanlon

   30/03/2010 at 12:51 am

   I was listening to Paul Romer last night, and today it kind of set me off thinking. I compiled together a quick idea in a blog this evening. It may be of some interest.

   http://designcomment.blogspot.com/2010/03/school-for-innovators.html

6. Stephen

   30/03/2010 at 1:51 pm

   Cheers Brian, threw the link out on twitter for discussion, hopefully something interesting will come back!

7. Brian O' Hanlon

   30/03/2010 at 9:03 pm

   I heard Tom Parlon of the CIF give a talk, in conjunction with Homebond first time buyers insurance and Sustainable Energy Ireland, to launch the Retrofit scheme and register of contractors. Parlon's idea was to build on the success the CIF had during the boom years to build up safety awareness in the building industry, through a similar register kind of system. Parlon's phrase was to make contractors 'energy aware', so that Ireland can aim towards a green-er, low carbon economy going forward. The point being, and it is a very good one, there is no use in a small no. of professionals knowing the science if awareness isn't distributed more widespread amongst those actually carrying out work. In a similar way, we need to approach the smart-er economy in Ireland with a similar discipline. If we really want to achieve anything. I made the following comment at the end of the 'school for innovators' blog entry. I really believe graduates could gain a lot of personal confidence to pursue employment positions, which have an idea generation slant to them, if they had even the most basic of basic introductions. I am saying this, as someone who attended design school myself for the most part of a decade in the 1990s. BOH.

   My goal in getting involved to set up some sort of a 'lite' version of an innovation course, that graduates from many different faculties could attend, on a modular basis, to earn a certificate of attendance, would be: Employers out there looking to hire graduates from any field, would be encouraged to do so, by the fact those students had at least a primary awareness of some of the ideas and concepts to do with idea generation, team working, project collaboration etc. You see a lot of programs on TV like celebrity football manager, the apprentice and so on. But I think there is some combination of that, which could work very well, being tacked onto the end of a university career before entering into the workforce. To be honest, all of what you can read above on the subject of innovation, is material I studied for myself having left architecture school. I wasn't aware of any of it, during my time at third level. Even though I was studying in a field where design was essentially what we are at. Therefore, even for graduates of design schools, the course I have in my mind, would have huge, huge benefits. And make the said designer graduates (and ultimately all disciplines) more attractive employment prospects by a significant margin.

8. Brian O' Hanlon

   30/03/2010 at 10:30 pm

   To add to that briefly. To put it in other, and perhaps more quantifiable economic terms, (or as close as I can get) I attended a presentation by David Duffy of the ESRI last year, on his Working Paper No. 319, October 2009, Negative Equity in the Irish Housing Market.

   (Mr. Duffy has published a updated version since, "Negative Equity in the Irish Housing Market", The Economic and Social Review, Vol 41 No 1, Spring 2010, pp.109-132, which I have yet to get around to reading)

   Last year, at the presentation I attended, David went through a lot of factors to explain negativity equity. But I guess an important conclusion for David, was the factor of consumer confidence. Therefore, I know at least one practicing economist in Ireland, is trying to quantify 'confidence'.

   The kind of 'confidence' I refer to in relation to the 'smart economy' is very important too. Not a kind of confidence that will make homo economicus got out an take a mortgage to drive the property related economy. But perhaps the kind of confidence, from an employment seeking perspective, which will drive the central engine of a 'smart economy' in Ireland. It would be a useful exercise, if someone were to study this in quantifiable economic terms.