Barbara J. Spencer

Barbara Judith Spencer is an Australian–Canadian economist whose research focuses on international trade theory and industrial organization. With James Brander, she developed the Brander–Spencer model in international economics. Their joint work in the early 1980s has been described in the scholarly literature as pioneering in the development of strategic trade policy, which concerns the use of trade measures to alter strategic competition among firms in international oligopolistic markets.

In 1985, Spencer and Brander published “Export Subsidies and International Market Share Rivalry,” which introduced the Brander–Spencer model and was identified as the most-cited paper published in the Journal of International Economics from the journal’s inception in 1971 to 2000. Their earlier 1981 paper, “Tariffs and the Extraction of Foreign Monopoly Rents under Potential Entry, received the Harry Johnson Prize from the Canadian Economics Association for the best paper published in the Canadian Journal of Economics in 1981. In 2018, Spencer was elected a Fellow of the Canadian Economic Association.

Education

Spencer received her Bachelor of Economics in 1967 at Australian National University, her Masters of Economics in 1970 at Monash University, and her Ph.D. in 1979 at Carnegie Mellon University.

Career

Spencer began her academic career at the University of Manitoba, where she served as an Assistant Professor before entering the PhD program at Carnegie Mellon University in 1976. She was promoted to Associate Professor at the University of Manitoba in 1979. From 1980 to 1985, she was an Associate Professor at Boston College, during which period she made early contributions to the development of strategic trade policy.

Since 1985 she has been a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. In 1988, she was appointed Asia Pacific Professor in Trade Policy at the University of British Columbia’s Sauder School of Business, a position she held for more than 25 years before becoming Professor Emerita at the University of British Columbia.

From 2004 to 2005, Spencer served as President of the Canadian Economics Association. In 2018, she was elected a Fellow of the Canadian Economics Association in recognition of her contributions to international trade theory and industrial organization. She has also served in editorial and advisory roles for academic journals, including the American Economic Review and the Journal of International Economics.

Research and scholarly works

Spencer’s research lies at the intersection of international trade theory and industrial organization. Much of her work examines strategic interaction between firms and governments in international markets characterized by imperfect competition. She is best known for her collaboration with James A. Brander on strategic trade policy, including the Brander–Spencer model.

In their 1985 article “Export Subsidies and International Market Share Rivalry,” published in the Journal of International Economics, Brander and Spencer analyzed how an export subsidy could increase domestic welfare in an oligopolistic international market involving one domestic firm and one foreign firm. The article argued that, by affecting the strategic interaction between the firms, an export subsidy could shift profits from the foreign firm to the domestic firm. Their earlier paper, “International R&D Rivalry and Industrial Strategy,” published in the Review of Economic Studies in 1983, examined how government support for research and development and industrial investment in profitable export industries could play a similar role in oligopolistic international markets.

A 2026 introduction to a ''Canadian Journal of Economics'' symposium in honour of Brander described Brander and Spencer’s collaborative research on strategic trade policy as important to the shift in international trade theory from models centred on perfect competition toward models incorporating strategic behaviour by firms and governments.

Spencer’s later research also addressed vertical relationships, keiretsu, joint ventures, intermediate-goods trade, and other issues at the intersection of trade policy and industrial organization. Her work has appeared in journals such as the Review of Economic Studies, the International Economic Review, and the Journal of International Economics.

Selected publications

Awards and recognitions

References

  1. 1 2 Brander, James A.; Spencer, Barbara J. (1985). "Export subsidies and international market share rivalry". Journal of International Economics. 18 (1–2): 83–100. doi:10.1016/0022-1996(85)90006-6. ISSN 0022-1996. Archived from the original on 7 February 2024.
  2. 1 2 Feenstra, Robert C; Rose, Andrew K (2000). "The Journal of International Economics at Fifty: A Retrospective". Journal of International Economics. 50 (1): 3–15. doi:10.1016/S0022-1996(99)00019-7.
  3. ↑ Brander, James A.; Spencer, Barbara J. (1981). "Tariffs and the Extraction of Foreign Monopoly Rents under Potential Entry". The Canadian Journal of Economics / Revue canadienne d'Economique. 14 (3): 371–389. doi:10.2307/134894. ISSN 0008-4085. JSTOR 134894.
  4. 1 2 "Canadian Economics Association - Harry Johnson Prize". www.economics.ca. Retrieved 23 July 2026.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Barbara Spencer". Retrieved 23 July 2026.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Canadian Economics Association - Barbara Spencer". www.economics.ca. Retrieved 23 July 2026.
  7. 1 2 "Barbara J. Spencer". NBER. Retrieved 28 July 2026.
  8. 1 2 "Canadian Economics Association - Organizational History". www.economics.ca. Retrieved 23 July 2026.
  9. ↑ Stegemann, Klaus (1989). "Policy rivalry among industrial states: what can we learn from models of strategic trade policy?". International Organization. 43 (1): 73–100. doi:10.1017/S0020818300004562. ISSN 0020-8183.
  10. ↑ Spencer, Barbara J.; Brander, James A. (1983). "International R & D Rivalry and Industrial Strategy". The Review of Economic Studies. 50 (4): 707. Bibcode:1983RvES...50..707S. doi:10.2307/2297771. ISSN 0034-6527. JSTOR 2297771. Archived from the original on 18 January 2024.
  11. ↑ Chen, Zhiqi (14 June 2026). "Introduction to the Symposium in Honour of James A. Brander". Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique caje.70062. doi:10.1111/caje.70062. ISSN 0008-4085.
  12. ↑ Spencer, Barbara J.; Jones, Ronald W. (1992). "Trade and protection in vertically related markets". Journal of International Economics. 32 (1–2): 31–55. doi:10.1016/0022-1996(92)90035-I.
  13. ↑ Spencer, Barbara J.; Qiu, Larry D. (2001). "Keiretsu and Relationship-Specific Investment: A Barrier To Trade?". International Economic Review. 42 (4): 871–901. doi:10.1111/1468-2354.00138. ISSN 1468-2354.
  14. ↑ Spencer, Barbara J.; Raubitschek, Ruth S. (1996). "High-Cost Domestic Joint Ventures and International Competition: Do Domestic Firms Gain?". International Economic Review. 37 (2): 315–340. doi:10.2307/2527326. ISSN 0020-6598. JSTOR 2527326.
  15. ↑ "1990 - UBC Killam Faculty Research Prize in Arts" (PDF). UBC.
  16. ↑ Spencer, Barbara J.; Brander, James A. (2008), "Strategic Trade Policy", The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 1–8, doi:10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2264-1, ISBN 978-1-349-95121-5, retrieved 23 July 2026