Aspects of the Theory of Tariffs (Collected Works of Harry Johnson)

4.    Optimal Trade Intervention in the Presence of Domestic Distortions*

I. INTRODUCTION

In the period since the war, the concern of economists with the problems of the underdeveloped countries and the formulation of policies to stimulate economic development has led to renewed interest in the economic arguments for protection. I use the description ‘economic arguments’ to distinguish arguments that recommend protection as a means of increasing real income or economic welfare from arguments that recommend protection as a means of achieving such essentially non-economic objectives as increasing self-sufficiency for political and military reasons, diversifying the economy to provide a richer way of life for the citizenry and so strengthening national ...