Until nowadays, the South-Mediterranean countries have focused on their strategic choice which consists in the creation of a Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area (FTA). Among the first participants in the constitution of this zone, is Tunisia, which signed an agreement of association with the...

In a model with cost-based informational asymmetry and trade policy determined endogenously, we show that tariffs and import-quotas have different sensitivities to the signal sent by the private agents to the home government. Specifically, the optimal quota is shown to be more sensitive than the...

Although the GATT prohibits discriminatory import tariffs, it includes means for circumventing this prohibition. The previous literature uses static models and discriminatory tariffs increase welfare. In a dynamic model, if governments lack the ability to precommit, this is not necessarily true....

We analyze the role of imperfect competition in explaining the relationship between temporary surges in trade-volumes and the level of cooperation in trade policy that can be sustained between countries in a repeated game framework. Imperfectly competitive markets are characterized by a mark-up...

This paper examines individual trade policy preferences across the 17 countries in Latin America. The focus is on whether skilled or unskilled workers are more likely to support liberalized trade and on whether country characteristics, such as factor endowments, alter the preferences of skilled...

There are large differences in gross domestic products by sectors among Latin American countries, and the majority of these differences are due to the value of industrial and service sectors. The structural reforms in countries of Latin America has broadly focused in the five major areas...

This paper reviews the evolution of thinking about regional trade agreements (RTAs) and the policy developments reflected in three waves of RTAs during the last half century. It rejects claims, based on number of RTAs notified to the WTO, that RTAs are today more prolific than ever. Desirable...

Time series data for Sri Lanka span periods of pervasive trade and exchange restrictions along with periods of liberalized trade. This paper implements a structural econometric model of aggregate imports which incorporates the implications of the shifts in the policy regime. The results...

Voting behavior and constituent attitudes are central to many models of trade policy determination. Examining the demographic and economic variables that are associated with attitudes toward various trade policies can provide some insight into the public perception of globalization, and the...

This paper analyzes empirically the impact of trade policy and sector specific openness on pro-poor growth in a cross-country approach to answer the question, whether the poorest 20 and 20 to 40 percent benefit from trade openness. To capture this issue, we estimate the distribution effect of...