Understanding Global Trade Hardcover – Illustrated, April 25, 2011

The best book of international trade for undergrad level. Reading this book, you will follow the literature of trade from classical Ricardo/Hecksher-Ohlin to modern firm heterogeneity model. Use very little math for explaining core of trade theory and empirical studies.

A lucid and clear explanation of international trade! It is useful for all, especially for all undergraduate students who study international trade. With this book, everyone can understand international trade better. In short, it is a very useful book!

This book gives me more specific ideas of global trade and understand global trade more easily, Also, it gives me feel like a way to learn global rather than going outside to know global.

The book is confusing and hard to understand for the lay person. Often references are made to data in other texts, which I don't have, making the discussion difficult to follow.

Just what I need.

This item showed up on time and was in the shaped stated in the details. Can't complain about that now.

Buy this book if you are interested in the latest economic trade theories coming out of academia. This may be because you are a student wishing to improve your competence, or you are someone who is really into economics and international trade issues. But be cautious in buying this book if you are just an interested citizen, perhaps coming to this subject through an interest in the moral, inequality or world poverty dimensions of the subject. Perhaps the title "Understanding Global Trade" could be misleading in implying it is a suitable introduction for the complete novice, when in fact perhaps a more suitable title should be "Understanding the Progress Being Made in the Academic Theories of Global Trade".The premise and tone of this book I would say are firmly within the pro free trade economic establishment, as there is little mention of any contention or dissatisfaction with the status quo. The book deals in the objective empirical questions of why global trade patterns form in a certain way, and not in the more reflective or moral questions of where these patterns are leading different countries, which are the questions which appeal more to me and perhaps also the general interest reader.The first part of the book deals with the fundamental and essential foundation principle of comparative advantage, which in my view everyone should be taught at school. But if you are not already hot on this subject perhaps a standard textbook would be more appropriate.As an example of its content, the later part of the book deals in detail with summarising the academic progress made in understanding and predicting when and where international production patterns involve offshoring through owned foreign subsidiaries or outsourcing to independent firms. This part of the book reminded me of a good business economics book I read years ago about the way that the make up and ownership patterns of all firms are influenced by the pros and cons of different contractual arrangements, different incentives and different principle agent issues. I mention this as it gives an indication as to the themes and approach of this book; it is hardcore economics complete with equations and diagrams, and arguably not really general interest.I definitely learnt a few points from this book. For example; the "home market effect", the theory that firms in large countries with a large home market have an in built advantage. Or secondly that it can be useful to differentiate sectors or products into contract-intensive and non-contract intensive, and that it can be shown that supply chains which require detailed enforcible complex contracts end up being produced in countries with capable infrastructure to provide this. Or thirdly "tariff jumping" where companies choose to invest in a subsidiary producer in the previously importing country to avoid the tariffs being levied. (Toyota building US factories in response to the US protection of its car market in 1973 is given as an example).So I was glad I bought this book, and I hope this review has helped the right people to buy it / not buy it also.

Elhanan Helpman, Harvard professor of international trade, is definitely among the foremost economists of his generation. In a mostly non-technical language, the present book reviews the evolution of trade theory from Adam Smith to the most recent decade. In particular, Helpman provides a clear account of the ground-breaking developments of the 1980s and most recent approaches that explain today's world of trade - of why some firms become multinationals and others remain firmly local. Many readers will welcome that the book, which targets a broad audience, is equation-free. While there is indeed no maths, I have, however, my doubts whether readers without the necessary technical background will really find it accessible. "Hicks-neutral TFP differences" or "melting iceberg trade frictions" are not exactly self-explanatory notions.The selection of topics is, as Helpman admits, somewhat biased and reflects his personal research interests. A lot of emphasis is put on "pure" trade theory (including the extensions and ramifications of the classical and neoclassical approaches), as well as the impact of trade on income distribution and labour markets. There is much less coverage of policy issues or the political economy of protectionism. Although there is a long chapter on classical trade theory, Paul Samuelson's 2004 article on potential drawbacks of globalization in a Ricardian model, as well as the subsequent debate, is surprisingly missing. Equally astonishing, not a single piece of work by Dani Rodrik, trade and development specialist at Harvard, is quoted. On the other hand, the book's simplified presentation of the Melitz model on trade with heterogeneous firms, rather hard stuff in its original version, is just brilliant. Moreover, the book's bibliography is as gigantic as an Ultra Large Container Vessel. Thus, those who look for a complement to an International Economics textbook or who are interested in a review of recent literature undertaken by a champion in his field will find it highly useful.