主讲人： Didac Queralt，Juan March Institute.    时间：6月4日下午2:00-3:30   地点：国发院万众楼一楼小教室   题目： From Mercantilism to Free Trade: A History of Fiscal Capacity Building   摘要：This paper presents a theory that explains the conditions under which mercantilism is abandoned in favor of free trade. Mercantilism is the practice of granting monopoly rights to domestic producers in exchange for higher tax compliance. I argue that where the initial stock of fiscal capacity is not excessively low and there is limited opportunity for policy capture in the field of trade, rulers will seek to replace mercantilism with free trade by pursuing the development of fiscal capacity even if it is at the cost of present welfare. Where these initial conditions are not met, mercantilism will persist. In situations where fiscal capacity is increased, protected industries fearing impending trade liberalization have a strong incentive to invest in superior technologies. Thereby, an increased fiscal capacity raises income levels by forcing protected industries to modernize and produce endogenous growth. These theoretical predictions are tested against historical European data from 1820 to 1950.