Abstract
The success of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)/World Trade Organization (WTO) as an international institution is widely acknowledged. Among multilateral institutions, the GATT/WTO has adopted a distinctive approach as a forum for international negotiation, based on reciprocal negotiations (over market access) that occur on a voluntary basis between pairs of countries or among small numbers of countries; the results of these bilateral negotiations are then ‘multilateralized’ to the full GATT/WTO membership under the GATT/WTO principle of non-discrimination. This article describes how recent economic research has attempted to understand and interpret these key design features of the GATT/ WTO.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Bagwell, K., and R.W. Staiger. 1999. An economic theory of GATT. American Economic Review 89: 215–248.
Bagwell, K., and R.W. Staiger. 2002. The economics of the world trading system. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Bagwell, K., and R.W. Staiger. 2005. Multilateral trade negotiations, bilateral opportunism and the rules of GATT/WTO. Journal of International Economics 67: 268–294.
Bagwell, K., and R.W. Staiger. 2006a. What do trade negotiators negotiate about? Empirical evidence from the World Trade Organization. Working paper no. 12727. Cambridge, MA: NBER.
Bagwell, K., and R.W. Staiger. 2006b. Backward stealing and forward manipulation in the WTO. Mimeo: Columbia University, Stanford University and University of Wisconsin.
Broda, C., N. Limao, and D. Weinstein. 2006. Optimal tariffs: The evidence. Working paper no. 12033. Cambridge, MA: NBER.
Conconi, P., and C. Perroni. 2003. Self-enforcing international agreements and domestic policy credibility. Working paper no. 114/03. Warwick University Center for the Study of Globalization and Regionalization.
Ethier, W. 2006. The theory of trade policy and trade agreements: A critique. PIER Working paper 06–013. University of Pennsylvania.
Hoekman, B., and M. Kostecki. 1995. The political economy of the world trading system. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Johnson, H.G. 1953–1954. Optimum tariffs and retaliation. Review of Economic Studies 1: 142–153.
Maggi, G., and A. Rodriguez-Clare. 1998. The value of trade agreements in the presence of political pressures. Journal of Political Economy 106: 574–601.
Maggi, G., and A. Rodriguez-Clare. 2007. A political-economy theory of trade agreements. American Economic Review 97: 1374–1406.
Regan, D.H. 2006. What are trade agreements for? Two conflicting stories told by economists, with a lesson for lawyers. Journal of International Economic Law 9: 951–988.
Schwartz, W.F., and A.O. Sykes. 1997. The economics of the most-favored-nation clause. In Economic dimensions in international law: Comparative and empirical perspectives, ed. J.S. Bhandani and A.O. Sykes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Staiger, R.W., and G. Tabellini. 1987. Discretionary trade policy and excessive protection. American Economic Review 77: 823–837.
Staiger, R.W., and G. Tabellini. 1999. Do GATT rules help governments make domestic commitments? Economics and Politics 11: 109–144.
WTO (World Trade Organization). 2007. World trade report. Geneva: WTO.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Staiger, R.W. (2018). World Trade Organization. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2050
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_2050
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95188-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95189-5
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences