Is the WTO passé?

Kyle Bagwell, Chad Bown and Robert Staiger

No 21303, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: 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 is structured in a way that is likely to encourage policy outcomes that are viewed as efficiency enhancing by WTO member governments, while the analogous claim for PTA-led liberalization is less clear.

JEL-codes: F13 F15 F53 F55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int
Note: ITI
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published as Kyle Bagwell & Chad P. Bown & Robert W. Staiger, 2016. "Is the WTO Passé?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(4), pages 1125-1231, December.

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Related works:
Journal Article: Is the WTO Passé? (2016)
Working Paper: Is the WTO passe ? (2015)
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