a r t i c l e i n f o JEL classification: F13 F42 F51 Keywords: Trade war out of fear Risk-dominant equilibrium Global game in trade policies Strategic complementarity Trade retaliation strategies This paper examines why the recent efforts to arrange free trade regimes have failed repeatedly focusing on the increased uncertainties in economic fundamentals and the asymmetric political economic c...

We examine in a dyanmic model how a firm determines the optimal level of innovation, and how a firm chooses between innovation and imitation. This paper considers a local firm, which is competing with a foreign, more productive, firm in terms of quantity, and at the same time, the local firm is able to spend the optimal amount of resources on innovation, with the purpose of closing the technolo...

Since late 2006, biofuel policies have caused high grain/oilseed prices by creating a link between crop and biofuel policies. The value of agricultural trade has increased sharply, mostly because of high prices, not increased trade volume. Biofuel policies have little to do with the agenda of the Doha trade negotiations but have had indirect effects in that production subsidies and import barri...

Contents 1. Introduction 2. The impact of international trade on economic welfare 3. The interaction between international trade, the environment and sustainable development: traditional theoretical approaches 3.1. The impact of environmental quality on international trade 3.2. The impact of international trade and international trade policy on the environment and environmental policies 3.3. Im...

Nontariff barriers (NTBs) refer to the wide range of policy interventions other than border tariffs that affect trade of goods, services, and factors of production. Most taxonomies of NTBs include market-specific trade and domestic policies affecting trade in that market. Extended taxonomies include macro-economic policies affecting trade. NTBs have gained importance as tariff levels have been ...

In this paper the trade restrictiveness of agricultural policies in Iran was measured by the TRIindex for the nine major agricultural products including wheat, rice, barely, maize, soybean,meat (beef meat), soybean oil, sugar and banana over the period 1981 to 2007. The main resultsindicate that there is no trend in above index and high volatility especially in 2006 and 2007years due to conside...

There are several ways to reduce GHG emissions. Governments may introduce climate policies which provide incentives to save energy or directly reduce emissions. Governments may also re-shape existing industrial or trade policies to reduce their negative impacts on GHG emissions. The case of trade policies is particularly interesting. Trade liberalization can foster economic development, thus in...