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In economics, a beggar-thy-neighbour policy is an economic policy through which one country attempts to remedy its economic problems by means that tend to worsen the economic problems of other countries. == Original application == Adam Smith made reference to the term in claiming that mercantilist economic doctrine taught nations 'that their interest lies in beggaring all their neighbours'.〔Adam Smith: ''An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,'' (Book IV, Chapter III (part II) ): "The sneaking arts of underling tradesmen are thus erected into political maxims for the conduct of a great empire ... . By such maxims as these, however, nations have been taught that their interest consisted in beggaring all their neighbours. Each nation has been made to look with an invidious eye upon the prosperity of all the nations with which it trades, and to consider their gain as its own loss. Commerce, which ought naturally to be, among nations, as among individuals, a bond of union and friendship, has become the most fertile source of discord and animosity."〕 The term was originally devised to characterise policies of trying to cure domestic depression and unemployment by shifting effective demand away from imports onto domestically produced goods, either through tariffs and quotas on imports, or by competitive devaluation. The policy can be associated with mercantilism and neomercantilism and the resultant barriers to pan-national single markets. According to economist Joan Robinson beggar-thy-neighbour policies were widely adopted by major economies during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Alan Deardorff has analysed beggar-thy-neighbour policies as an instance of the prisoner's dilemma known from game theory: each country individually has an incentive to follow such a policy, thereby making everyone (including themselves) worse off. An early appearance of the term, which presumably originates from the name of the Beggar-My-Neighbour card game, is seen in the title of a work on economics from the early period of the Great Depression: * Gower, E.A., ''Beggar My Neighbour! : The Reply to the Rate Economy Ramp'', Assurance Agents' Press, (Manchester), 1932. Also today it is in widespread use, as seen in such publications as ''The Economist'' and ''BBC News''. Transcending the dilemma of beggar-thy-neighbor policies involves realizing that trade is not a zero-sum game, but rather the comparative advantage of each economy offers real gains from trade for all. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Beggar thy neighbour」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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