This paper develops a new model of trade policy under dictatorship and democratization. The paper makes two contributions. One is to provide a deeper understanding of the relationship between political institutions and economic efficiency by studying the endogenous interaction between the form...

This paper first disproves the traditional trade theory and its optimal tariff implication. Then, it develops a theory to explain trade liberalization, which shows that liberalization increases output and profit to the benefit of the host country. This paper supports the works by WTO

PTAs are generally negotiated without any tariff concessions or transfers to non-member countries. Can such a PTA benefit the neighbors’ welfare? In a two-good competitive equilibrium model in the absence of an entrepôt, a PTA without concessions to the outside will hurt the outsider’s...

This paper reviews the most significant recent developments in the theory of trade agreements. The paper offers an integrated approach to evaluating trade agreements, and uses the approach to present results on preferential and multilateral trade agreements. The paper identifies also several...

The paper puts forward the hypothesis that the transitory effects of trade liberalization on wage inequality can differ from the long-run outcome. In cases where the HOS theory predicts a decline in wage inequality in the long run, a temporary rise can, nevertheless, occur due to (i) the...

The terms-of-trade theory suggests that governments engage in trade negotiations with their trade partners in an effort to escape from a terms-of-trade prisoner's dilemma by mutually internalizing externalities that they impose on each other. In this paper, I use predictions of the...

Amid a general rise in protectionism and a trade war between the world's two largest economies, this paper analyzes changes in gains from trade for the world over a decade marked by rapid global economic integration preceding the global financial crisis of 2007-08. It employs state-of-the-art...

Using the influence-driven approach to endogenous trade-policy determination, we show how a free-trade agreement (FTA) with rules of origin can work as a device to compensate losers from trade liberalization. The FTA constructed in this paper is characterized by external tariff structures that...

The extent to which a country can bene t from trade openness crucially depends on its ease of reallocating resources. However, we know little about the role of domestic frictions in shaping the e ects of trade policies. I address this question by analyzing the impact of tari reductions on the...