Trade subject to predation generates externalities within and between markets. Efficient tax, infrastructure and enforcement policies internalize the net externality — more trade ⇒ fewer predators but drawn to trade at rising cost. The balance is positive (negative) as enforcement is weak (strong). Dual economies pair weak Periphery and strong Core enforcement markets. Efficient taxation and in...

It has become increasingly common to produce goods in a number of geographically dispersed stages linked by international trade. This tendency, known by names such as “production fragmentation”, “processing trade”, and “vertical specialization”, has important implications for the analysis of nontariff measures (NTMs) and trade facilitation. First, different types of NTMs or trade facilitation i...

Sustainable development is a Controversial concept which has been considered over the three decades. It is comprehensive development and includes all of dimensions as “economic’’, “social’’ and ‘‘environmental’’. In economic objective, it requires substantial economic change that can be brought about by investment and trade. They are effective factors of sustainable developm...

This paper examines the welfare implications of an existence of free trade agreements (FTAs) and customs unions (CUs) in the GATT system, in the presence of cross-foreign ownership among countries. In particular, two GATT regimes are analyzed: a pure GATT regime without any regional free trade agreements, and modified GATT regime with either an FTA or a CU. This paper argues that, when foreign ...

The empirical relationship between trade protection and economic growth is surprisingly fragile, as shown in a number of other papers. After demonstrating this empirical sensitivity, we address one possible explanation for these findings: that the relationship is nonlinear. Following the endogenous growth literature, we test for the possibility that the relationship between trade barriers and g...

This paper examines the impact of trade liberalization on U.S. Congressional elections. We nd that U.S. counties subject to greater competition from China via a change in U.S. trade policy exhibit relative increases in turnout, the share of votes cast for Democrats and the probability that the county is represented by a Democrat. We nd that these changes are consistent with Democrats in o ce du...

Does Antidumping Protection Raise Market Power? Evidence from Firm Level Data* This Paper empirically tests the effects of Anti-Dumping (AD) protection on the price-cost margin of firms. To this end, we use a rich panel data set of 1,666 EU producers that were involved in AD cases initiated in 1996. Our findings indicate that price-cost margins in most cases significantly increase in the period...

In the 1970s, taxation of "windfall" profits from primary products and intervention in trade and production tempted governments into expansionary fiscal policies, whilst stifling the private sector and depressing growth. However, the experience of the recent coffee boom has so far been more favourable: those African countries which liberalized and left a large share of the “windfall” with the p...

We analyze how economic shocks and policies affect the intensity of social conflict. We view conflict phenomena such as crime and civil war as involving resource appropriation activities. We show that not all shocks that could make society richer reduce conflict. Positive shocks to labor intensive industries diminish social conflict, while positive shocks to capital intensive industries increas...