In 1972, the potential gainfulness of free trade was established under fairly general assumptions — essentially those of Arrow and Debreu. Since then, the assumptions have been considerably weakened, notably by accommodating overlapping mortal generations and an infinite horizon. However,...

It is well known that if the autarkic and free-trade equilibria are perfectly competitive with market distortions limited to non-negative taxes on imports and exports then free trade is potentially (after country-specific lumpsum compensatory transfers) beneficial for each trading country. It...