This paper shows that electoral incentives affect the occurrence of trade disputes. Focusing on WTO disputes filed by the United States during the 1995-2012 period, we show that U.S. presidents are more likely to initiate a dispute in the year preceding their re-election date. Moreover, disputes...

We find that air pollution increases crime in a city that ranks in the worst two percentiles worldwide for dirty winter air. Our identification strategy employs distinct geographic features of Almaty, Kazakhstan: cleaner mountain winds and frequent temperature inversions. Using these variables...

This policy study uses U.S. Census microdata to evaluate how subsidies for universal telephone service vary in their impact across low-income racial groups, gender, age, and home ownership. Our demand specification includes both the subsidized monthly price (Lifeline program) and the subsidized...

Many international trade agreements regulate the use of domestic policies. Oneapproach is "deep" integration, in which governments contract directly over domesticpolicies. An appealing alternative is "shallow" integration, in which nations contractover market access and avoid negotiations over...

Why did countries achieve a consensus to restrict export subsidies and export-promoting domestic subsidies when the World Trade Organization (WTO) began in1995, but not decades earlier under the General Agreement on Tari¤s and Trade(GATT)? This question poses a challenge for the theory of trade...

Much potential for trade liberalization exists in industries and markets with trade barriers that are prohibitive for all or many firms. In standard political economic theories of trade policy, observed prohibitive barriers must be globally optimal according to static government preferences,...

This contribution focuses on the phrase ‘in a manner affecting trade’, that is often found within labour disciplines in trade agreements, expressly linking labour standards (or their violation) to trade. The meaning of this specific phrase has been the subject of much discussion recently,...