International Trade as a Tool for Socio-Economic Development of Countries

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2013 in the subject Economics - International Economic Relations, grade: 1,0, Cracow University of Economics, language: English, abstract: In approaching the subject of this paper, a general overview of international trade, its scope, repartition and recent shifts will be presented at the outset. A natural statistic for international trade, i.e. the trading volume compared to GDP, is introduced and its shortcomings are highlighted. In attempting to improve on significance towards socio-economic considerations, more appropriate key ratios and parameters are presented and put into context by means of two examples. Effects of free trade are controversially discussed referring to work of several economists and adjoined to those of trade restrictions and closed markets. Finally, further aspects like dependency, trade and democracy as well as loss of culture are considered.