An empty promise: Average cost savings and scale economies among Canadian and American manufacturers, 1910 - 1988

Arbeitspapier

During the debate that led up to the implementation of a bilateral free trade agreement between Canada and the U.S. on January 1, 1989, much was made of economists' claims that both nations could expect significant welfare improvements as a result of the removal of tariffs on traded goods. The welfare gains were expected to flow from average cost savings associated with the exploitation of scale economies. In this paper we show that it was overly optimistic to predict substantive reductions in average costs in response to any increases in the scale of production among Canadian or American manufacturing firms. Therefore, ex ante we should have expected trade liberalization between Canada and the U.S. to have had only muted scale, average cost, and welfare effects.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: Queen's Economics Department Working Paper ; No. 1002

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Economic History: Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations: U.S.; Canada: 1913- ; Economic History: Manufacturing and Construction: U.S.; Canada: 1913- ; Metals and Metal Products; Cement; Glass; Ceramics
• Thema: Economic History ; Technology and Scale ; Growth and Fluctuations ; Produktionskosten ; Skalenertrag ; Handelbares Gut ; Handelsabkommen ; USA ; Kanada

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Keay, Ian
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Queen's University, Department of Economics
• (wo): Kingston (Ontario)
• (wann): 2001

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/67818
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:45 MEZ