Munir Mahmud

Political Economy of Trade Policy and Transaction Costs: Lobbying for Protection when Entry Can Erode Rents and a Transaction Cost Explanation of Patterns of Industrial Expansion Munir Mahmud

This book is a collection of three papers on industrial structure and international trade policy issues. The first paper is a theoretical study in the political economy of trade policies and the effect of these policies on industrial growth. The second paper is an empirical investigation of the political and economic forces which influence trade policy. U. S. trade and industry data were used and all estimations were strictly guided by the model developed in the first paper. The third paper provides a transaction cost explanation of the pattern of industrial expansion in the ready-made garment sector of Bangladesh. This book will be useful to students and researchers in the areas of endogenous tariff, political economy and the new economics of institutions. The book may help resolve some of the contradictions that seem to exist between theoretical predictions and empirical observations in these areas of research. It also reinforces some of the findings of other research carried out in these areas.