Journal Article A Note on Tariff Changes and World Welfare Get access Peter B. Kenen Peter B. Kenen Princeton University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Volume 88, Issue 4, November 1974, Pages 692–697, https://doi.org/10.2307/1881833 Published: 01 November 1974

I. The framework of a simpre gold-exchange standard, 572. — II. The system's response to changes in the gold content of reserves, 573. — III. The stability of the system, 579. — IV. Implications for policy, 582. —Appendix: piivate balances and the stability of the system, 583.

I. The Bowley-Edgeworth box diagram can be used to describe an exchange but not a production equilibrium, 426. — II. A modified box diagram that allows a complete and explicit treatment of the welfare implications of changes in production, 429. — III. Relation of modified box diagram to some recent work in welfare economics, 433. — IV. Application of modified box diagram to analysis of certain propositions in the theory of international trade, 439.

T HE international transactions of the United States are larger in volume and variety than those of any other country, and the United States dollar is more widely used than any other currency. The international financial position of the United States defies simple summary, and the status of the dollar cannot be appraised by striking a single sum or balance across any set of numbers. But these familiar observations do not diminish the importance of the statisticians' efforts to devise an efficient summary. Although no one number can say very much, some summary statistics are better than others, and a proliferation of rival constructions may merely confuse a complex situtation. The balance-of-payments statistics of the United States are more complete and detailed than those of most other countries. But the Commerce Department declines to identify a surplus or deficit in the United States payments data. Instead, it spatters its tables with a dozen separate balances covering different subsets of numbers. Five of these balances, arrayed in Table 1, purport to be comprehensive, and each has been cited by one expert or another as the most appropriate measure of the