We present a model of political networks that integrates both the choice of trade partners (the extensive margin) and trade volumes (the intensive margin). Our model predicts that regimes secure in their survival, including democracies and consolidated authoritarian regimes, will trade more on the extensive margin than vulnerable autocracies, which will block trade in products that would expand...

The increasing competitive pressures from both global and domestic markets are forcing nations to adopt new trade practices and standards. Nations need to adjust to new methods of trade information exchange, open up their telecommunications systems and learn to take full advantage of harmonized procedures, standards, and practices for trade documentation. The role of electronic commerce and ele...

Recent studies have challenged the view that trade openness leads to more specialization in countries’ trade. Using a panel of 116 countries over 35 years, we show that openness can be positively associated with both specialization and diversification, depending on the measure used. Moreover, for developing countries in our sample, the effect of openness on trade structure depends on the type o...

This paper tests the implication of the Stolper-Samuelson theorem that capital-poor individuals prefer more trade openness in poor (capital-scarce) countries and less trade in rich (labor-scarce) countries, by using a broad panel of countries and new exogenous determinants of trade openness. According to the seminal work in Mayer (1984), capital-poor individuals prefer more trade openness in po...

europeans were the major actors of the world political scene in the 19th century. france sought to defeat its rivals in napaleanic era but the unification of other european powers lead to the defeat of france and the establishment of germany through the changes in the political map of europe. the german strategists, through entering international interactions challenged the other political play...

The field of political economy has long produced theoretically informed empirical research on the politics of international trade. For example, few books have enjoyed a better reputation than E. E. Schattschneider’s 1935 classic study of the Smoot–Hawley Tariff (Politics, Pressures, and the Tariff). Since that early date, trade politics has developed into a major subfield in political science. ...

This paper examines conditions under which domestic political institutions mediate the effect of trade competition on regulatory races in the environmental area. We focus on the role of domestic veto players in shaping governments' policy responses to trade competition which are reflected eventually in air (Sulphur dioxide, SO2) and water pollution (Biochemical Oxygen Demand, BOD) intensity lev...