Economists have repeatedly warned against them, NGOs have fought them, and somegovernments have begrudgingly (at least in appearance) signed them. Yet, in the last twentyyears the growth in number of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) has been unabated. Evenmore strikingly, their scope has...

Economists have repeatedly warned against them, NGOs have fought them, and somegovernments have begrudgingly (at least in appearance) signed them. Yet, in the last twentyyears the growth in number of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) has been unabated. Evenmore strikingly, their scope has...

In this paper we investigate whether multilateral trade liberalisation undermines or encourages preferential trade liberalisation. We use highly disaggregated data at the tariff-line level and find an 'emulator effect' of multilateral trade liberalisation on preferential trade agreements....