Beggar-my-neighbor policy

It is a policy that transfers the burden of unemployment and other costs to other countries and aims to recover and maintain one's own economy at their expense. In the national income cycle, exports, like investments, are an injection of demand from outside a country, and their increase has a multiplier effect that increases national income. On the other hand, imports, like savings, are leakages from the national income cycle where domestic income does not flow back to domestic companies, and their increase has a negative multiplier effect that decreases national income. Therefore, policies to increase exports and reduce imports, such as devaluing the exchange rate, providing export subsidies, raising tariffs, and strengthening import restrictions, increase the national income and employment of a country and alleviate recessions and unemployment. However, an increase in exports or a reduction in imports in one country leads to an increase in imports and a decrease in exports in other countries, which will decrease national income and increase unemployment in those countries. In other words, policies to increase exports and reduce imports reduce unemployment in one country, but at the same time, they increase unemployment abroad and transfer unemployment to other countries (this is called exporting unemployment). If one country adopts such a policy, other countries will retaliate with similar policies, causing world trade to stagnate and the international economy to deteriorate. Typical examples of this are the currency devaluation races and tariff hike races before World War II.

[Akira Shida]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

他国に失業などの負担を転嫁し、その犠牲のうえに自国の景気の回復、維持を図る政策をいう。輸出は国民所得の循環では投資と同様に一国の外からの需要の注入であり、その増加は国民所得を増加させる乗数効果をもち、他方、輸入は貯蓄と同様に国内の所得が国内の企業に還流しない国民所得循環からの漏出であり、その増加は国民所得を減少させる負の乗数効果をもつ。したがって、為替(かわせ)相場の切下げ、輸出奨励金の交付、関税の引上げ、輸入制限の強化などの輸出増大や輸入削減政策は、一国の国民所得や雇用を拡大して不況や失業を緩和する。しかし、一国の輸出の増大や輸入の削減は他国の輸入の増加や輸出の減少につながり、他国では国民所得が減少し、失業が増加することになるであろう。つまり、輸出増大や輸入削減政策は、その国の失業を減少させるが、それと裏腹に外国で失業を増加させるという形で、外国に失業を転嫁する（それを失業の輸出という）のである。このような政策を一国がとると、他国も同様の政策で報復を行うため、世界貿易は沈滞し、国際経済は悪化する。第二次世界大戦前の為替相場切下げ競争、関税引上げ競争などは、その典型的な例である。

［志田　明］

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