Does WTO accession affect domestic economic policies and institutions?

The paper aims to examine policy-anchor hypotheses by analysing the impact of WTO accession process on domestic economic policies and institutions of newly acceded WTO members. It shows that the process of obtaining WTO membership, under certain circumstances, can lead to a positive improvement in domestic econoic policies and institutions. The difference-in-difference analysis is employed as the empirical model. Results are robust with alternative model specifications and choice of economic policies and institutional variable.