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The Trade-Agreement Embarrassment

Author

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  • Ethier , Wilfred J.

    (University of Pennsylvania)

Abstract

The dominant academic literature about trade agreements maintains that they are only about national terms-of-trade manipulation and not at all about purely political concerns. Non-academic economists, commentators, and diplomats by contrast think that trade agreements are all about political concerns. There are two substantive and important distinctions between the two views. i Practitioners maintain that policymakers care virtually not at all about the terms of trade or about trade-tax revenue. ii Practitioners, unlike academics, maintain that trade-agreement negotiations themselves change the underlying political economy. Observation of actual trade policy measures, though not conclusive, suggests that the practitioners are right and that the academics are wrong.

Suggested Citation

  • Ethier , Wilfred J., 2013. "The Trade-Agreement Embarrassment," East Asian Economic Review, Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, vol. 17(3), pages 243-260, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:eaerev:0053
    DOI: 10.11644/KIEP.JEAI.2013.17.3.265
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Grossman, Gene, 2016. "The Purpose of Trade Agreements," CEPR Discussion Papers 11151, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Peter Egger & Marcelo Olarreaga, 2014. "Introduction to the special issue on the political economy of multilateral trade negotiations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 9(2), pages 135-142, June.
    3. Udo Broll & Soumyatanu Mukherjee & Rudra Sensarma, 2020. "Risk preferences estimation of exporting firms under exchange rate uncertainty," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 67(1), pages 126-136, February.
    4. Jaime DE MELO & Marcelo OLARREAGA, 2017. "Trade Related Institutions and Development," Working Papers P199, FERDI.
    5. Wilfred J. Ethier & Arye L. Hillman, 2017. "The Politics of International Trade," CESifo Working Paper Series 6456, CESifo.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Multilateralism; Standard Academic Model; Practitioners Conventional Wisdom; Terms of Trade; Political Economy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration

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