Original Application
The term was originally devised to characterize 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 analyzed 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.
Read more about this topic: Beggar Thy Neighbour
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