Is the WTO Passé?

Kyle Bagwell; Chad P. Bown; Robert W. Staiger

doi:10.1257/jel.20151192

Is the WTO Passé?

Kyle Bagwell¹; Chad P. Bown²; Robert W. Staiger³

¹ Stanford and NBER , · ² Peterson Institute for International Economics and the Center for Economic Policy Research. · ³ Dartmouth and NBER

Journal of Economic Literature 2016 open access

The WTO has delivered policy outcomes that are very different from those likely to emerge out of the recent wave of preferential trade agreements (PTAs). Should economists see this as an efficient institutional hand-off, where the WTO has carried trade liberalization as far as it can manage, and is now passing the baton to PTAs to finish the job? We survey a growing economics literature on international trade agreements and argue on this basis that the WTO is not passé. Rather, and subject to some caveats, our survey of research to date suggests that the WTO warrants strong support while a more cautious view of PTAs seems appropriate. (JEL F13, F14, K33, N70)

DOI: 10.1257/jel.20151192
Volume: 54 (4)
Pages: 1125-1231
Language: en
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