Relaciones de intercambio, beneficios del comercio y bienestar económico

In certain circles of economists who write on international commerce and development there exists a firmly-rooted and rather widespread belief that the terms of trade of merchandise constitute an adequate indicator of the amount and direction of the resulting benefits. Likewise it is thought to be a suitable instrument for objective evaluation of the changes in economic welfare associated with variations in commerce. One of the objectives of this paper is to try to demonstrate how little satisfactory said theories are. In addition, the author maintains that no complete estimate of the implications on economic welfare involved by international trade and its changes could be made by taking into consideration solely and individually certain details of the problem of terms of trade. The author takes a clear stand against any pattern of theory trying to chart the future course of terms of trade of merchandise by basing itself on the premise that the future necessarily has to be fairly similar to the present.
Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas