Several major trade agreements in recent years have included a provision that addresses labor standards. Other trade agreements that are now in the discussion stage are considering incorporating labor standards as an integral part of the final agreement. The goals of such agreements are noble -...

Does political affiliation with the government in power lead to better protection from terrorism and to a lower probability of exposure to attacks? How do government's protective measures affect terrorists' decision of whom to attack? In this paper, I analyze these questions using a formal model...

In recent years international trade growth has been slow. Although international trade is considered to have various benefits, such as access to international markets, rapid economic growth, higher competition, and improved investment climate, there is a growing tendency to justify...

This study analyzes the firm-level impacts of temporary safeguard import tariffs implemented in Ecuador from 2015 to 2017. Employing a difference-in-differences methodology, we explore the policy's effects on a unique dataset combining firm- and product-level data. We focus on the direct effects...

As a result of the current global financial crisis, in 2009 the world economy is likely to experience the largest contraction since World War II and the unemployment rate to reach historical highs in many countries. The fact that the current global crisis is originated from the U.S. and followed...

This paper examines the trade policy response of Latin American governments to the rapid growth of China and India in world markets. To explain higher protection in sectors where a large share is imported from these countries, we extend the `protection for sale' model to allow for different...

To date, government procurement has been effectively carved out of the main multilateral rules of the WTO system. This paper examines the systemic and other ramifications of this exclusion, from both an economic and a legal point of view. In addition to relevant elements of the WTO Agreements,...

Wie in vergangenen Rezessionen verursachte auch die Wirtschaftskrise 2008-2009 Spannungen im internationalen Handelssystem. Allerdings spielen diesmal Importzölle, das klassische Instrument, um eigene Industries vor ausländischer Konkurrenz zu schützen, keine bedeutende Rolle, vor allem nicht...

Like all crises in the past, the economic downturn of 2008-2009 caused some frictions in the international trading system. Import tariffs, the traditional instrument for protecting domestic industries, however, have not played the primary role in this, particularly not in industrialised...