Hegemonic Globalization

Christoph Trebesch, Josefin Meyer, Alberto Martin and Fernando Broner

No 1504, Working Papers from Barcelona School of Economics

Abstract: How does the global balance of power shape the world economy? We propose a theory of "hegemonic globalization" built on two premises: countries have hetero- geneous policy preferences, and trade expands with policy alignment. Hegemons foster alignment, enabling globalization, while a shift to multipolarity risks frag-mentation, at the expense of the declining hegemon and its allies. Empirically, we use international treaties as a proxy of alignment and construct the Global Treaty Database, covering 77,000 agreements from 1800–2020. The evidence supports the key elements of our theory: hegemons spur treaty-making, and treaties are a leading indicator of bilateral trade

Keywords: cooperation; globalization; hegemon; international coercion; international treaties; multipolar world; trade integration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F02 F15 F50 F51 F55 F60 P45 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ifn, nep-int and nep-opm
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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