In this paper, we consider a three-stage game in the context of a competing exporters model to compare and contrast the effects of discriminatory and uniform (Most Favored Nation, MFN) tariffs on countries' choice over environmental standards for varying degrees of pollution spillovers. Because...

We determine the impact of free trade on the sustainability of an international environmental agreement (IEA) and incorporate it into the assessment of the net benefits of opening up to free trade. We show that such an analysis can reverse the conclusions reached within a standard one-shot game...

This paper develops a simple two-country model in which each economy consists of two sectors: a competitive non-tradable sector and an oligopolistic tradable sector. We investigate two related issues that arise in response to trade liberalization. First, we examine the linkage between trade...

This paper uses an endogenous merger formation approach in a concentrated international oligopoly to examine the effects of trade liberalization on the nature of merger incentives (national vs. international). The effects of unilateral trade liberalization on a country’s industry structure are...

In this paper, we compare endogenous environmental policy setting with centralized and decentralized governments when regions have comparative advantages in different polluting goods. We develop a tworegion, twogood model with interregional environmental damages and perfect competition in...

In this paper we analyze the effect of the freedom to pursue preferential trade liberalization, permitted by Article XXIV of the GATT, on country's incentives to participate in multilateral negotiations and on the feasibility of the global free trade. We present a model in which countries choose...

In a game of endogenous trade agreements, we examine whether the pursuit of free trade agreements (FTAs) affects the prospects of global free trade differently than the pursuit of customs unions (CUs). Our analysis is driven by a fundamental difference between these two types of preferential...

Using an oligopoly model of trade with asymmetric costs, we study the individual and world welfare implications of a hub and spoke trade agreement where the hub country is more efficient than spoke countries. Under a hub and spoke trade regime, the hub country can benefit at the expense of the...

Following the failure of multilateral trade negotiations at the Cancun meeting and the Doha Round, developing countries have pursued an alternative in so-called "south-south" trade agreements. Since these agreements lead to trade diversion from efficient north (developed) countries to less...

This paper calculates Theil's entropy index to measure the extent of productivity differences across 92 countries for the period from 1970 to 2003. While there is evidence of increasing differences in productivity across these countries, we observe different patterns when we group the countries...