As the economic crisis deepens and widens, fears of a return to the protectionist spiral of the 1930s become more common. However, an important difference between the 1930s and today is the existence of the World Trade Organization and the legal limits it imposes on the protectionist responses...

Results from a two-step simulation that uses a computable general equilibrium model and detailed consumption and income household data suggests that trade liberalization benefits people in the poorest deciles more than those in the richer ones