The National Treatment clause (NT) is the first-line defence in the GATT (and in most other trade agreements) against opportunistic exploitation of the inevitable incompleteness of the agreement. This paper examines the role of NT as it applies to internal taxation under the GATT. It is shown...

We propose a model of trade agreements in which contracting is costly, and as a consequence the optimal agreement may be incomplete. In spite of its simplicity, the model yields rich predictions on the structure of the optimal trade agreement and how this depends on the fundamentals of the...

We use a North-South model with property right differences and resource dynamics to study the effects of trade on resource use and welfare. Autarky is likely to Pareto-dominate free trade in the long run when the environment is quite fragile, and the result is reversed when the environment is...

This paper uses a new economic geography model to analyze tax competition between two countries trying to attract internationally mobile capital. Each government may levy a source tax on capital and a lump sum tax on fixed labor. If industry is concentrated in one of the countries, the analysis...

The current debate in Western Europe centres on the relationship between economic and political integration. To address this problem, we construct a simple general equilibrium model in which the returns to trading are directly affected by the availability of a public good. In our model...

This paper surveys four ex-post quantitative studies of the effect of United Kingdom accession to the European Economic Countries on trade in manufactures. It starts by discussing the principal predictions of economic theory, establishing a framework for measuring integration effects, and...

The paper analyzes the evolution of coalitions over the early 1980's between business interests, government authorities in the larger industrialized countries and European institutions, notably the Commission, to promote policies aimed at securing a European comparative advantage in...

The paper analyzes the role of a multilateral payments union (PU) between East European countries (EEPU) as an intermediate solution in the process to full convertibility. After a description of the main functions of a PU, which is based on the historical model of the European Payments Union, it...

The paper compares the cyclical behaviour of the Greek economy to that of the other EC economies, using quarterly and annual data since 1960 and the Real Business Cycle model as a theoretical framework. The evidence suggests that there are remarkable similarities in these features despite...

When economic integration fosters expectations of productivity convergence, capital flows are driven by consumption-smoothing anticipation of income growth patterns as well as by factor-intensity equalization. In the euro area, financial integration eased accumulation of international...