History of Economic Thought

History of Economic Thought
(220:327)

Prof. Leo Troy

Research
resources
compiled by
Ka-Neng Au
(au@rutgers.edu)

Concepts

The topic "Is Fair Trade a Contemporary Form of Mercantilism?" will require that you understand, first of all, mercantilism as an historical school of thought (see the encyclopedia article in the Web Resources section below). Then you have to consider present day manifestations of those views in the context of globalization and international trade. Use the following phrases or keywords to help sort out your thoughts:

international trade
fair trade
free trade
globalization
comparative advantage
laissez-faire

unemployment
offshoring
outsourcing
antidumping
protectionism
tariffs

Of course, you should think of other related concepts to provide more focus to your research.

Articles

For references to articles in scholarly Economics journals, use EconLit from the American Economic Association. Search with combinations of concepts from above as well as these classification codes:
- B110.cc (History of Economic Thought: Preclassical, including Mercantilist)
- F110.cc (Neoclassical Models of Trade)
- F130.cc (Commercial Policy; Protection; Promotion; Trade Negotiations)
- F160.cc (Trade and Labor Market Interactions)
Note that you will only see abstracts of the articles; for the full-text, click on which will lead to locations of the journals.
To locate articles in general business and economics journals and magazines, use Business Source Premier , enter keywords and then select appropriate fields.

Books

Use IRIS, our online catalog, to locate books which may help you. Note that there are several ways to search, including TITLE keyword and SUBJECT keyword. Books that are not at Dana may be requested from other libraries with the Book Delivery / Recall

button.

Web Resources

Start with Mercantilism from the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. For an entire textbook suitable for the whole course, take a look at William J. Barber's A History of Economic Thought (Penguin Books, 1967)

Then, read the study from the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress on International Trade and Investment: An Historical and Contemporary Survey of Research and Analysis. (377 KB PDF document)

If you need to (you probably don't), here is an entire book to browse: U.S. Trade Strategy: Free Versus Fair by Daniel Drezner, Council on Foreign Relations Press, 2006. (5.36 MB PDF document)

Here is a sample of resources from selected organizations, some of which are conservative and others are liberal in their viewpoints:

Center for Trade Policy Studies (Cato Institute)
Hot Topics: Trade and Jobs (Institute for International Economics)
Research: Trade and Foreign Aid (Heritage Foundation)
Trade & Globalization (Economic Policy Institute)
U.S. Competitiveness in a Global Marketplace (Brookings Institution)
For even more discussion and links to opposing viewpoints, refer to Free Trade and Globalization as well as Fair Trade.

Citing Your Sources

Follow the guidelines for footnotes (not endnotes) APA Formatting and Style Guide for print materials and for APA Style: Electronic References.

For other resources, consult the Economics research guide. [http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/econ/econ.shtml]

http://newarkwww.rutgers.edu/econ/econ327-2007.htm
This page was last updated 30 August 2007.
Questions? Comments?