The authors analyze whether the US-Japan Trade Agreement is consistent with GATT Article XXIV that carves out an exception to the WTO's "Most-Favored Nation" (MFN) principle. They conclude that the agreement is unlikely to meet the "substantially all the trade" criterion of GATT Article XXIV...

Increasing wage inequality between similar workers plays an important role for overall inequality trends in industrialized societies. To analyze this pattern, we incorporate directed labor market search into a dynamic model of international trade with heterogeneous firms and homogeneous workers....

Increasing wage inequality between similar workers plays an important role for overall inequality trends in industrialized societies. To analyze this pattern, we incorporate directed labor market search into a dynamic model of international trade with heterogeneous firms and homogeneous workers....

We derive a simple equation for the welfare gains from trade when tariffs are liberalized or iceberg trade costs fall. Covering various one-sector trade models that may or may not feature extensive margins and imperfect competition, we generalize the analysis of Arkolakis, Costinot and...

The currently negotiated Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the EU and the United States of America will most likely affect countries, such as Norway which have close ties to the European production networks. Based on a CGE model, developed at the ifo institute, we...

Trade economists traditionally study the effect of lower variable trade costs. While increasingly important politically, technical barriers to trade (TBTs) have received less attention. Viewing TBTs as fixed regulatory costs related to the entry into export markets, we use a model with...