This paper surveys the contributions of economists since the 1960s to our understanding of AustraliaÂ’s evolving production and trade pattern and to the policies affecting it. Changes in comparative advantage only partly explain the trade pattern. Much of the residual explanation has to do...

A common-agency lobbying model is developed to help understand why North America and the European Union have adopted such different policies towards genetically modified food. Our results show that when firms (in this case farmers) lobby policy makers to influence standards and consumers and...

How much might the potential economic benefit from a farm productivity boost associated with crop biotechnology adoption by Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) be offset by a loss of market access abroad for crops that may contain genetically modified (GM) organisms? This paper uses the global GTAP...

A global economy-wide model (GTAP) is used to go beyond estimating how GM crop variety adoption affects adopting and non-adopting economies, with or without policy responses to this technology, by indicating effects also on real incomes of farmers. The results suggest the EU moratorium on...

The dispute resolution procedures of the World Trade Organization allow sanctions to be imposed when a country is unwilling to bring a WTO-inconsistent trade measure into conformity. Apart from the fact that the procedure for triggering the retaliation process has ambiguities that need to be...

This paper examines the strengthening forces behind the latest wave of globalization and draws out its consequences for the policy strategies of small open economies such as Singapore. The digital revolutionÂ’s contributions to globalization have been substantial, but so too have the policy...

After a brief review of the literature to the early 1970s, this paper assesses the contributions during the past three decades to measuring the distortionary effects of trade policies. It does not pretend to be comprehensive, but draws on selections from the literature that give a sense of the...

Phasing out distortionary government subsidies and barriers to international trade will yield extraordinarily high benefits relative to any adjustment costs, notwithstanding the considerable reforms that have already taken place over the past two decades. This paper surveys recent estimates,...

This paper examines the extent to which various regions, and the world as a whole, could gain from multilateral trade reform over the next decade. The World BankÂ’s LINKAGE model of the global economy is employed to examine the impact first of current trade barriers and agricultural...

This paper examines whether the Sub-Saharan African economies could gain from multilateral trade reform in the presence of trade preferences. The World BankÂ’s LINKAGE model of the global economy is employed to examine the impact first of current trade barriers and agricultural subsidies, and...