Alan V. Deardorff

Comparative Advantage in International Trade

Alan V. Deardorff's work on international trade theory has dealt primarily with the theory of comparative advantage and the Heckscher-Ohlin and other models that explain the patterns and effects of international trade. His work on trade policy has included analyses of anti-dumping laws, the safeguards clause of the GATT, and arguments for and against extending intellectual property protection to developing countries.

In his work with Professor Stern, Mr Deardorff developed a computable general equilibrium model of production, trade and employment in 34 major countries of the world. They used this model for a variety of purposes, including analysis of the Tokyo and Uruguay Rounds of multilateral trade negotiations and possible outcomes of the Doha Round. He, Professor Stern, and Drusilla K. Brown also developed a series of four- and eight-country models that they used to evaluate the sectoral employment implications of various regional trading arrangements.

Alan Deardorff's current research interests include: the roles of trade costs and intermediate inputs in international trade; potential implications of rules of origin (ROOs) in proliferating free trade agreements (FTAs) as well as the implications of exempting sensitive sectors from these agreements; and potential implications of large trade agreements currently being negotiated by the US with Europe and with countries of the Asia-Pacific.

During his stay at CESifo, he will be continuing his work on proliferating FTAs, an example of which is the paper "Rue the ROOs: Rules of Origin and the Gains (or Losses) from Trade Agreements". This paper provides two simple theoretical examples of trade among three countries in three industries, each of which includes both an intermediate input and a final good. The examples show the adverse effects that ROOs can have, even in a world where every country has an FTA with every other country.

Professor Deardorff has served as a consultant to many government agencies, including the Departments of State, Treasury, and Labor of the United States Government and international institutions including OECD, UNCTAD and the World Bank, and he is currently on the editorial boards of several journals. He is co-author, with Robert M. Stern, of The Michigan Model of World Production and Trade and Computational Analysis of Global Trading Arrangements. He has published numerous articles on various aspects of international trade theory and policy.

Alan V. Deardorff is John W. Sweetland Professor of International Economics and Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan. He received his PhD in economics from Cornell University in 1971 and has been on the faculty at the University of Michigan since 1970. He served as Chair of the Department of Economics from 1991 to 1995. From 2007 to 2015 he was Associate Dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.