J. Peter Neary
Professor of Economics,
Department of Economics,
University of Oxford
Peter Neary is Professor of Economics at Oxford University and a Professorial Fellow of Merton College. He is also an Associate Member of Nuffield College Oxford and he retains an association with University College Dublin where he was Professor of Political Economy from 1980 to 2006. At Oxford he teaches International Trade at undergraduate (P.P.E.) and graduate (M.Phil.) levels, and convenes the Merton Seminar in International Trade.
Born in 1950 in Drogheda, Ireland, Peter Neary was educated at University College Dublin and Oxford, where he completed his D.Phil. in 1978. He has been a post-doctoral Visiting Scholar at MIT and a Visiting Professor at Princeton, Berkeley, Queen's University in Kingston Ontario, the University of Ulster at Jordanstown, and the Ecole Polytechnique, Paris. He was an editor of the European Economic Review from 1986 to 1990 and has served on a number of other editorial boards. He was President of the European Economic Association in 2002, and played a leading role in establishing the Journal of the European Economic Association. He has lectured widely, including the 2002 Ohlin Lectures at the Stockholm School of Economics and the 2008-2009 Graham Lecture at Princeton.
Measuring the Restrictiveness of International Trade Policy by Jim Anderson and Peter Neary was published by MIT Press in 2005. Peter Neary has also edited three other books and published over a hundred professional papers. His main research field is international trade theory, where he has worked on short- to long-run adjustment, the economics of resource-rich economies (especially the "Dutch Disease"), trade and industrial policy, and the implications of imperfect competition (especially oligopoly) for trade and globalisation, among other topics. He has also written on consumer theory (including rationing and index numbers), industrial organisation (including the economics of research and development), and macroeconomics (including international macro theory and Irish economic policy). See below for his selected publications, current research interests and unpublished papers.
In addition to his full-time position in Oxford, he is a Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research in London. Other current or past professional activities and honours include the following:
For more biographical details, see his full c.v., or his entries in Who's Who in Economics or the International Who's Who, or click here for a less formal account.
Oligopoly in General Equilibrium
My principal current research interest is
oligopoly in general equilibrium, and its implications
for a variety of issues in trade and competition policy.
For non-technical introductions to this approach, see:
"The road less travelled: Oligopoly and competition policy in general equilibrium ", in R. Arnott, B. Greenwald, R. Kanbur and B. Nalebuff (eds.): Economics for an Imperfect World: Essays in Honor of Joseph E. Stiglitz, MIT Press, 2003.
"Globalisation and market structure", Journal of the European Economic Association, 1:2-3, April-May 2003, 245-271.
"Competitive versus comparative advantage", The World Economy, 26:4, April 2003, 457-470.
The underlying theory is set out in an old paper, still not completed (don't ask!):
"International trade in general oligopolistic equilibrium," June 2002, latest revision February 2009.
Two relatively recent papers extend the theory in various directions:
(C. Eckel and J.P. Neary) "Multi-Product Firms and Flexible Manufacturing in the Global Economy," forthcoming in Review of Economic Studies.
(J.P. Neary and J. Tharakan) "Endogenous Mode of Competition in General Equilibrium," December 2005; revised October 2008.
For applications to the "trade and wages" debate, concerning the impact of technology and trade on the relative wages of skilled and unskilled workers, see:
"Foreign competition and wage inequality", Review of International Economics, 10:4, November 2002, 680-693.
"Competition, trade and wages", in D. Greenaway, R. Upward and K. Wakelin (eds.): Trade, Investment, Migration and Labour Market Adjustment, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002, 28-46.
Foreign Direct Investment
A related current interest is the theory of foreign direct investment, both the "greenfield"
case (where firms construct new plants in foreign countries) and the much less studied case
of cross-border mergers and acquisitions.
"Trade costs and foreign direct investment,” International Review of Economics and Finance, 18:2, March 2009, 207-218. [Published version]
"Cross-border mergers as instruments of comparative advantage," Review of Economic Studies, 74:4, October 2007, 1229-1257. [Published Version]
"Foreign direct investment and the single market", The Manchester School, 70:3, June 2002, 291-314.
Strategic Trade and Industrial Policy
Dermot Leahy
and I have written on various aspects of strategic trade and industrial policy,
in both closed and open economies, with applications to R&D policy, learning by doing
and research joint ventures. Recent papers include:
(D. Leahy and J.P. Neary) "Multilateral subsidy games", Economic Theory, 41:1, October 2009, 41-66. [Published version]
(D. Leahy and J.P. Neary) "Absorptive capacity, R&D spillovers and public policy," International Journal of Industrial Organisation, 25:3, October 2007, 1089-1108. [Published version]
(D. Leahy and J.P. Neary) "Symmetric research joint ventures: Cooperative substitutes and complements", International Journal of Industrial Organisation, 23:5-6, June 2005, 381-397.
(J.P. Neary and D. Leahy) "Revenue-constrained strategic trade and industrial policy", Economics Letters, 82:3, March 2004, 409-414.
(D. Leahy and J.P. Neary) "Robust rules for industrial policy in open economies", Journal of International Trade and Economic Development, 10:4, December 2001, 393-409.
For a policy-oriented overview of some of this work, see:
"R&D in developing countries: What should governments do?," in P.-A. Muet and J.E. Stiglitz (eds.): Governance, Equity and Global Markets: The Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics - Europe, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001; French translation: "Recherche-developpement dans les pays en developpement: que devraient faire les gouvernements?", Revue d'Economie du Developpement, 8:1-2, June 2000, 215-226.
Measuring the Restrictiveness of Trade Policy
Jim Anderson of Boston College and I have developed true index numbers
which provide welfare-theoretic measures of the restrictiveness
of international trade policy. The Trade Restrictiveness Index (TRI)
is defined as the uniform tariff which would yield the same level of welfare
as a given set of non-uniform tariffs and quotas. The Mercantilist
Trade Restrictiveness Index (MTRI) is defined as the uniform tariff
which would yield the same level of imports as the initial trade restrictions.
Our recent book sets out the underlying theory and shows how our approach can be applied
in practice:
(J.E. Anderson and J.P. Neary) Measuring the Restrictiveness of International Trade Policy, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2005.
These ideas were first introduced in our published papers, especially:
(J.E. Anderson and J.P. Neary) "A new approach to evaluating trade policy," Review of Economic Studies, 63:1, January 1996, 107-125.
(J.E. Anderson and J.P. Neary) "The mercantilist index of trade policy", International Economic Review, 44:2, May 2003, 627-649.
A computer program to calculate the TRI and MTRI for a particular computable general equilibrium model is maintained by Jim Anderson. Check Jim's home page for details. For an alternative approach to estimating the indices, see the work of Marcelo Olarreaga, Alessandro Nicita and Hiau Looi Kee here.
In tandem with this project, we have extended the theory of trade policy reform in a number of directions. Two recent papers are:
(J.E. Anderson and J.P. Neary) "Welfare versus market access: The implications of tariff structure for tariff reform," Journal of International Economics, 71:1, March 2007, 187-205. [Published version]
"Simultaneous Reform of Tariffs and Quotas," Review of International Economics, 15:1, February 2007, 37-44. [Published version]
International Comparisons of Real Income
For details, go to the GAIA homepage.
Miscellaneous
I also work on economic geography, trade and the environment, and other topics.
Click here for a list of my current working papers.
(D. Leahy and J.P. Neary) "Multilateral Subsidy Games", September 2007; forthcoming in Economic Theory, 2009.
(J.P. Neary and J. Tharakan) "Endogenous Mode of Competition in General Equilibrium," December 2005; revised October 2008.
(C. Eckel and J.P. Neary) "Multi-Product Firms and Flexible Manufacturing in the Global Economy," November 2005; revised July 2008; forthcoming in Review of Economic Studies.
"International trade in general oligopolistic equilibrium," June 2002, revised March 2003.
"Comments" on: "Television in a Digital Age: What Role for Public Service Broadcasting?" by Shaun P. Hargreaves Heap, Economic Policy, 2005.
"Europe on the road to Doha: Towards a new global trade round?", CESifo Economic Studies, 50:2, Summer 2004, 319-332.
"R&D in developing countries: What should governments do?", in P.-A. Muet and J.E. Stiglitz (eds.): Governance, Equity and Global Markets: The Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics - Europe, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001; French translation: "Recherche-developpement dans les pays en developpement: que devraient faire les gouvernements?", Revue d'Economie du Developpement, 8:1-2, June 2000, 215-226.
"The European Union Stability Pact and the case for European Monetary Union," Economic Outlook and Business Review, Belfast: First Trust Bank, 12:4, December 1997, 41-52.
(J.P. Neary and D.R. Thom) "Punts, pounds and euros: In search of an optimum currency area," IBAR: Journal of Irish Business and Administrative Research, 18, 1997, 211-225.
"Celtic tiger on EMU trail," Independent on Sunday, London, 15 June 1997.
"Festschrift for Brendan Walsh: Introduction and Interview with Brendan Walsh," Economic and Social Review, 37:2, Summer/Autumn 2006, 121-122 and 295-302.
(J.P. Neary with J.A. Mirrlees and J. Tirole) "Evaluating economics research in Europe: An introduction," Journal of the European Economic Association, 1:6, December 2003, 1239-1249.
(P. Honohan and J.P. Neary) "W.M. Gorman, 1923-2003," Economic and Social Review, 34:2, Summer/Autumn 2003, 195-209.
"Report of the President 2002," Journal of the European Economic Association, 1:2-3, April-May 2003, 743-750.
"R.C. Geary's contributions to economic theory," in D. Conniffe (ed.): Roy Geary, 1896-1983: Irish Statistician, Dublin: Oak Tree Press in association with The Economic and Social Research Institute, 1997, 93-118.