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Articles and analyses from the INET community on the key economic questions of our time.

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Distribution Matters: Flawed Welfare Foundations in Classic Free Trade Arguments

Oct 27, 2025

The argument that free trade is always the correct policy is based on a flawed welfare analysis. Free trade results in winners and losers and economists are not competent to analyze the impact on well-being as a whole or the spillover social consequences of the discontent of the losers.