Comparative Advantage, Growth, and the Gains from Trade and Globalization

Alan Deardorff was 65 years old on June 6, 2009. To celebrate this occasion, a Festschrift in his honor was held on October 2–3, 2009, in the Rackham Amphitheater at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The Festschrift was entitled “Comparative Advantage, Economic Growth, and the Gains from Trade and Globalization: A Festschrift in Honor of Alan V Deardorff.” It was co-organized by two of Professor Deardorff's former students, Drusilla Brown of Tufts University and Robert Staiger of Stanford University, together with Robert Stern representing the University of Michigan.The first day of the Festschrift involved a series of panels in which invited participants reflected on Professor Deardorff's contributions, including his writings on: comparative advantage; trade and growth; the gains from trade and globalization; and computational modeling and trade policy analysis. The panel participants prepared written comments, setting out their evaluation of Professor Deardorff's contributions combined with their own thoughts on the current state of knowledge and analysis of the particular topic. At the end of the first day, Paul Krugman of Princeton University and The New York Times delivered a Citigroup Foundation Special Lecture entitled “Reflections on Globalization: Yesteryear and Today.” All of these papers and Krugman's lecture are contained in the volume.In order to provide further perspective on the foregoing topics, each section of the volume includes reprints of a number of Professor Deardorff's most important papers that underlie the reflections on his work by the Festschrift panelists.