Free Trade Blinders

Most economists are strong supporters of free trade. They believe in the principle of comparative advantage which suggests that free trade enlarges the global economic pie. Some may be harmed by free trade, but enlarging the economic pie takes precedence over adverse outcomes to some. Dani Rodrik reminds us that free trade has distributional outcomes that must be considered when we make trade policy. If the public believes that the distributional outcomes are unfair, or undeserved, they will oppose free trade. He provides some examples of unfairness in this article.