WTO negotiations rely on tariff reduction formulas. It has been argued that formula approaches are of increasing importance in trade talks, because of the large number of countries involved, the wider dispersion in initial tariffs (e.g. tariff peaks) and gaps between bound and applied tariff...

In models of economic geography, plant-level scale economies and trade costs create incentives for spatial agglomeration of production into a manufacturing core and agricultural periphery, creating regional income differentials. We examine tax competition between national governments to...

We examine the consequences of increased economic integration between nations within a region. We adopt Krugman’s economic-geography model in which demand linkages can generate agglomeration of manufacturing activity. Manufacturing labour is assumed to be imperfectly mobile between countries....

A stylized pattern of interindustry trade between developing and developed regions identifies the former as specialists in light manufactures and latter in heavy manufactures. Conventional explanations for this pattern rely on the factor proportions model, which is empirically suspect. This...

This paper analyzes the incentives for governments to impose export subsidies when firms invest in a cost saving technology before market competition. Governments first impose an export subsidy or a tax. After observing export policy, firms invest in cost reducing R&D and subsequently compete in...

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....

'Everyone against the protectionism of developed countries' Even if the debate on globalization pits sceptics and enthusiasts against one another, they seem to agree on exposing the protectionism of developed countries. This is illustrated by a recent report by OXFAM on trade, the way some...

Although the core model of the Dutch Disease makes unambiguous predictions regarding the negative effect of a resource boom on a country’s manufacturing exports, the empirical literature that has followed has not clearly identified this effect. I attribute this to the failure of the existing...

This paper formulates a model of optimal export decision of private firms and then empirically studies the effect of firm size, R&D activities and competitiveness on export performance of Indian private firms during the period 1975-1986. The paper argues that the Cragg model is more appropriate...

International Transport Services (ITS) play an important role in influencing international trade flows. This paper develops an analytical framework in which ITS costs are endogenously determined. It shows that ITS sector liberalization foster international trade very much the same way tariff...