Lobbying by economic actors constitutes a central element of a large part of the literature on trade policy-making. However, it is mainly considered as inputʺ into the political system, which then aggregates the demand of different societal interests. As such inputs, the preferences of economic...

This book provides a history of the WTO US-EU banana dispute through the lens of a major actor: the US-owned multinational firm, Chiquita Brands International. It documents and explains how Chiquita succeeded in having the Clinton administration pursue a trade policy of forcing the European...

1. Objective and Organization -- 2. Corporate Influence in US Trade Policy -- 3. The Importance of Bananas in the Caribbean -- 4. The EU Banana Regime -- 5. Chiquita and Its Influence on US Trade Policy -- 6. Chiquita Overwhelms the Small Caribbean States -- 7. Impact of US Banana Policy on the...

Using data on the US and EU top R&D spenders from 2004 until 2012, this paper investigates the sources of the US/EU productivity gap. We find robust evidence that US firms have a higher capacity to translate R&D into productivity gains (especially in the high-tech industries), and this...