The conventional wisdom suggests that import restraints help the protected domestic industry at the expense of consumers. In the longer term, however, trade restraint may encourage foreign firms to adopt new and more threatening business strategies, such as upgrading the quality of their...

Although contemporary international organizations are often perceived as rule-making and rule-enforcing bodies, their more important function is to serve as facilitators of agreement among governments. Actions of the International Energy Agency during 1979-1980 illustrate this point. In the oil...

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is widely used to adjust wages and federal benefits as an offset to inflation, but the index contains substantial sources of bias as used for such purposes. For instance, these sources of bias, such as changes in the real cost of petroleum, the cost of...