Do the World Trade Organization and the Generalized System of Preferences foster bilateral trade?

Title data

Herz, Bernhard ; Wagner, Marco:
Do the World Trade Organization and the Generalized System of Preferences foster bilateral trade?
Bayreuth : Universität Bayreuth, Rechts- und Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät , 2007 . - 22 S. - (Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Diskussionspapiere der Universität Bayreuth, Rechts- und Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät ; 01-07 )

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Abstract in another language

World trade has grown exponentially during the last 60 years. Admittedly, it is not clear if this development can be assigned to international trade agreements like the World Trade Organization or the Generalized System of Preferences as previous empirical studies found contradicting results. In this paper we generalize the different approaches used in the literature to estimate the role of GATT/WTO and the Generalized System of Preferences for trade. We use a gravity model and apply FE estimation on a disaggregated bilateral data set of the trade flows between 145 countries across 1962-99. In our analysis we find a significant positive effect of WTO membership on bilateral trade. Referring to other multilateral institutions, we find robust evidence that membership in regional trade agreements or currency unions substantially increase bilateral trade flows as well. By contrast, we find that the Generalized System of Preferences does not foster trade in general, rather the opposite. This might be due to the opportunistic behavior of industrial countries that grant GSP schemes as long as the concerned products are relatively unimportant, but restrict them as soon as they become relevant.

Further data

Item Type:	Working paper, discussion paper
Institutions of the University:	Faculties > Faculty of Law, Business and Economics > Department of Economics > Chair Economics I - International Economics and Finance > Chair Economics I - International Economics and Finance - Univ.-Prof. Dr. Bernhard Herz Faculties Faculties > Faculty of Law, Business and Economics Faculties > Faculty of Law, Business and Economics > Department of Economics Faculties > Faculty of Law, Business and Economics > Department of Economics > Chair Economics I - International Economics and Finance
Result of work at the UBT:	Yes
DDC Subjects:	300 Social sciences > 330 Economics
Date Deposited:	18 May 2015 10:07
Last Modified:	04 Apr 2019 05:40
URI:	https://eref.uni-bayreuth.de/id/eprint/13551