The Economics of Export Embargoes

Book excerpt: Export embargoes are imposed in the belief that enough economic damage will be inflicted on the target country to make it change course on some key political point. However, export embargoes also have economic consequences for producers in the country which imposes the embargo and for producers in third party countries. This book, first published in 1987, analyses the economic effects of export embargoes. It presents much general analysis on the topic and goes on, making use of a model, to examine in detail the 1980 US embargo on grain sales to the Soviet Union. Among the book’s findings is the importance of expectations concerning how long the embargo will last in determining both the success of the embargo and the impact on produces in the country imposing the embargo.