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Estimating the Effects of GATT/WTO Membership on Trade Using Staggered Difference-in-Differences Design

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  • Tanaka, Ayumu

    (Aoyama Gakuin University)

Abstract

There has been much debate over the past 20 years about whether accession to the GATT/WTO increases trade for member countries. Previous studies have used estimation methods that do not properly consider that the timing of GATT/WTO accession varies from country to country. This study uses a recently developed staggered difference-in-differences (DiD) estimator to explore the effects of GATT/WTO accession by explicitly accounting for the timing of accession. It finds evidence that GATT/WTO accession significantly increases trade in member countries. The DiD results show that the trade promotion effect of the GATT/WTO GATT/WTO reaches 12.5--25.7% and 21.5--79.5%, 5 and 10 years after both countries' accession.

Suggested Citation

  • Tanaka, Ayumu, 2023. "Estimating the Effects of GATT/WTO Membership on Trade Using Staggered Difference-in-Differences Design," SocArXiv kjzyq, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:kjzyq
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/kjzyq
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    References listed on IDEAS

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