Estimating the Cost to Consumers of the U.S. Sugar Quota: An Exercise for Introductory Economics Classes.

Journal of Economic Education, The, March, 1997 by Williams, Andrew T.

A college economics professor discusses a method by which he teaches introductory economics students concepts relating to international trade. The professor creates an exercise regarding the US sugar trade using information from the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Statistical Abstract of the United States.

As Paul Krugman (1993, 23) wrote, "[W]hat (students) learn about economics will be what they get in that first course. It is now more important than ever before that their basic training include a solid grounding in the principles of international trade." One of the things students need to get in that first course is that trade barriers--tariffs and quotas--are a particularly inefficient interference in the market. Not only do these barriers...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.