Advanced International Trade : Theory and Evidence

Rating:
Summary: Advanced International Trade: Theory and Evidence
Review: I really expected far more from this textbook. It adds very little to already existing graduate textbooks on trade. It is not useful for graduate students that want to understand the literature of the 2000s. It assumes you already know the material. It debotes a lot of space to the old literature at the expense of the new one. This is a field that has changed significantly. Frankly, I find hard to see its value added.

Rating:
Summary: The current standard
Review: In my opinion this is the best book currently available for a graduate course in real-trade theory. I have already used it twice in class and my students have invariably preferred it to other recent works available, e.g., K.Y. Wong or Bhagwati et al. Compared to these, this book is better written and focuses judiciously on the models that yield the sharpest conclusions and most relevant insights. Discussions of the significance of gravity models, foreign investments, political economy, free trade areas, and institutional factors in trade (e.g., ethnic networks) are particularly clear and up to date compared with other texts.

The required mathematical apparatus (e.g., envelope and duality results) is introduced naturally, intuitively, and only as and when it is needed. The English flows easily, and the interweaving of theoretical and empirical material is especially novel and welcome.

This book should set the standard for writing graduate texts.