The World Trade Organization (WFO) lacks the power to directly enforce agreements. It is, therefore, important to understand what role the WTO can play to facilitate international cooperation and whether a multilateral institution can offer distinct advantages over a web of bilateral agreements. This paper examines two potential benefits of a multilateral trade institution: first, verifying violations of the agreements and informing third parties, thus facilitating multilateral reputation mechanisms; second, promoting multilateral trade negotiations rather than a web of bilateral negotiations. The model suggests that a multilateral approach is particularly important when there are strong imbalances in bilateral trading relationships.
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Volume (Year): 89 (1999) Issue (Month): 1 (March) Pages: 190-214 Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML
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References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Bagwell, Kyle & Staiger, Robert W, 1990.
"A Theory of Managed Trade,"
American Economic Review,
American Economic Association, vol. 80(4), pages 779-95, September.
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Kyle Bagwell & Robert W. Staiger, 1989.
"A Theory of Managed Trade,"
Discussion Papers
801, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
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