Proponents of autarky have argued for national self-sufficiency to reduce foreign economic, political and cultural influences, as well as to promote international peace.[3] Economists are generally supportive of free trade.[4] There is a broad consensus among economists that protectionism has a negative effect on economic growth and economic welfare, while free trade and the reduction of trade barriers has a positive effect on economic growth[5][6][7][8] and economic stability.[9]
Autarky may be a policy of a state or some other type of entity when it seeks to be self-sufficient as a whole, but it also can be limited to a narrow field such as possession of a key raw material. Some countries have a policy of autarky with respect to foodstuffs (as South Korea), and water for national-security reasons.[10] Autarky can result from economic isolation or from external circumstances in which a state or other entity reverts to localized production when it lacks currency or excess production to trade with the outside world.[11][12]
^Van Oudenaren, John (1991). "7: Economics". Détente in Europe: The Soviet Union and the West Since 1953. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. p. 255. ISBN978-0822311416. Retrieved 28 March 2019. After veering toward autarky under war communism, in the 1920s the Soviet authorities began restoring business relations with traditional partners.
^See P. Krugman, «The Narrow and Broad Arguments for Free Trade», American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings, 83(3), 1993 ; and P. Krugman, Peddling Prosperity: Economic Sense and Nonsense in the Age of Diminished Expectations, New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 1994. [ISBN missing][page needed]