Competition, Economic Growth, and Gains from International Trade

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Comparative Analysis
Different individuals approach similar situations using different strategies. The two articles “Competition, Markups, and the Gains from International Trade” and “The Importance of International Trade in the World” by Edmond, Midrigan and Xu, and Vijayasri respectively, are different in the approach adopted by the authors in supporting their arguments, although both articles address the benefits and pressures of international trade. Edmond, Midrigan, and Xu use credible and current sources coupled with statistical evidence to defend their argument while Vijayasri uses outdated sources, making him less effective in defending his argument and convincing his audiences.
The main themes in both articles relate to the themes of international trade. Both articles focus on competition, economic growth, and gains from trade. However, Edmond, Midrigan, and Xu bring out these themes more clearly than Vijayasri. This is evident in how they address each theme separately and in an organized manner. For Instance, when addressing gains from trade, the authors present their readers with evidence on how they calculate the gains from trade, coupled with a table that displays their report on the same. This is an excerpt from their article, indicating that they are providing their readers with all the relevant information “In Table 3 we report the gains from trade for Intermediate degrees of openness” (3205). The case is very different for Vijayasri, who merely states that gains from trade are one of the impacts of international trade, and only provides a theory of the largest beneficiary of international trade based on two opposing groups of economists. An excerpt from his work is as follows: “One group of economists is… According to them, the gains from trade have gone mostly to the developed nations of the World” (114). As such, it is evident that Edmond, Midrigan, and Xu are more thorough in their work and are therefore able to convince the readers more with the provided evidence.
In both articles, the authors opine that high competition is one of the pressures of international trade. On one hand, Edmond, Midrigan, and Xu reveal that their data points to a Cournot competition between firms, and further provide evidence on what would happen if the firms were, instead, engaging in a Bertrand competition. The results of such a change, according to the authors, is that a Bertrand competition would result in a lower mark dispersion in comparison to a Cournot competition (3213). The authors imply that once firms experience strong competitive pressure, it is possible to reduce market distortions through international trade. The authors use of logos appeal is evident in the logical evidence they provide for their readers in form of a statistical model. On the other hand, Vijayasri posits that international trade can result in high competition, forcing firms to outsource labor and production services from emerging market. According to Vijayasri, this can lead to the collapse of major industries and loss of jobs in developed markets which will eventually fail to remain competitive in international trade (117). How...