Author Archives: Nikolaos Vlassis

Behind the Scenes at the WTO: The Real World of International Trade Negotiations

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<style=”font-size: 14px;”>”World hunger, jobs, the overall economic prospects of developing and developed countries alike are all being shaped more and more by the international negotiations about trade, agriculture, services, investment and intellectual property rights going on at the World Trade Organization (WTO). Based on interviews with people actually participating in the negotiations, this remarkable book lifts the shroud of secrecy surrounding these ostensibly democratic negotiations…”[Publisher’s Book Website]

Reviews / Comments

Book review by Robert Staiger in Journal of Economic Literature, 44(2), June 2006. [Earlier version]

The High Stakes of WTO Reform by James Thuo Gathii in Michigan Law Review, 104(6), May 2006.

Book review by Bobby Tuazon in Bulatlat, IV(1),February 2004.

Book review by Gerard Downes in International Affairs, 80(4), September 2004.

Book review by Jeremy Agar in Foreign Control Watchdog, 104, December 2003.

Globalization, Intermediaries and Rural Development.

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It is understood that intermediaries are an important bridge between supply of and demand for agricultural products.  In many cases they identify buyers in foreign markets.  It is apparent that their activity has direct effects on the welfare and efficiency of local producers.  Whether or not these effects are positive depends on intermediaries’ bargaining power, producers’ decisions about verticalization and/or the institutional environment of the home country, including state and legal capacities.  Globalization has the potential to magnify these effects.

Antràs P.and A. Costinot, (2011); “Intermediated Trade.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 126(3): 1319-1374. [Earlier version]

Bardhan P., D. Mookherjee and M. Tsumagari, (2012);”Middleman Margins and Globalization.” American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, forthcoming. [Earlier version]

Fafchamps M., E. Gabre-Madhin and M. Bart, (2005); “Increasing returns and market efficiency in agricultural trade.” Journal of Development Economics, 78(2): 406-442. [Earlier version]

Fafchamps M. and R. V. Hill, (2008); “Price Transmission and Trader Entry in Domestic Commodity Markets.” Economic Development and Cultural Change, 56(4): 729-766. [Earlier version]

Krishna K. and Y. Sheveleva, (2012); “Wheat or Strawberries? Intermediated Trade with Limited Contracting.” Working Paper.

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty

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“Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine?

Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are?

Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Otherwise, how to explain why Botswana has become one of the fastest growing countries in the world, while other African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence?…” [Publisher’s book website]

Author’s Book Website 

Author’s Interview, The Economist, March 2012.

Reviews / Comments 

Book review by Bill Gates, February 2013.
(Authors Reply, March 2013 )

Book review by Duncan Green in The World Bank Group, December 2012.

Government, Geography, and Growth by Jeffrey Sachs in Foreign Affairs, October 2012.
(Authors Reply, November 2012)

Which Nations Failed? by Arvind Subramanian in The American Interest, October 2012.
(Authors Reply, November 2012)

Book review by Michele Boldrin, David K. Levine and Salvatore Modica, September 2012.

Book review by Junet Hunter in LSE Blogs, EUROPP, August 2012.

What Makes Countries Rich or Poor? by Jared Diamond in The New York Review of Books, June 2012.
(Authors Reply, August 2012)

Book review by Peter Coy in Bloomberg Businessweek, April 2012.

Book review by Warren Bass in The Washington Post, April 2012.

Book review by Nancy Birdsall in IMF, March 2012

The Big Why by The Economist, March 2012.

The Povetry of Nations by Dalibor Rohac in The Wall Street Journal, March 2012.

The Roots of Hardship by William Easterly in The Wall Street Journal, March 2012.

Book review by Paul Collier in The Observer March 2012.

The Wealth of Nations by Martin Wolf in The Financial Times, March 2012.

Are Natural Resources a Curse for Developing Countries?

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Paradoxically, for developing countries the abundance of natural resources can be a curse. With the lack of property rights protection and rule of law, natural resource abundance contributes to political instability, conflict, and corruption. From the perspective of international trade they can cause the so called ‘Dutch disease,’ whereby a natural resource discovery triggers exchange rate appreciation, and its adverse consequences for industrialization and growth. In addition, price volatility in world markets creates macroeconomic instability for resource exporters. Currently international institutions, the WTO in particular, do not have the adequate apparatus to foster trade agreements that cover natural resources; such agreements could potentially lead to more efficient outcomes.

Collier P. and A. J. Venables, (2011); “Illusory Revenues: Import tariffs in Resource-Rich and Aid-Rich Economies.” Journal of Development Economics, 94(2): 202-206. [Earlier version]

Giordanni P. E., N. Rocha and M. Ruta, (2012); “Food Prices and the Multiplier Effect of Export Policy.” World Trade Organization Working Paper no. ERSD-2012-08.

Ruta M. and A. J. Venables, (2012); “International Trade in Natural Resources.” Annual Review of Resource Economics, 4: 331-352. [Earlier version]

Van der Ploeg F., (2011); “Natural Resources:Curse or Blessing?” Journal of Economic Literature, 49(2): 366-420. [Earlier version]

How Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) Affect Non-Members.

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Since the conclusion of the Uruguay Round in 1994, participation in preferential trade agreements (PTAs) has proliferated rapidly. In 1990, there were only about 70 PTAs in force. By 2010 the number of PTAs increased to almost 300. On one hand we have known since Viner (1950) that PTA formation could potentially reduce world welfare. More recently, concerns have arisen in the literature specifically about implications for the welfare of nonmembers. Chang and Winters (2002) was the first paper to provide empirical evidence of the adverse effects of PTAs on the welfare of excluded countries through the terms-of-trade effects that are generated. On the other hand there is also evidence that PTAs can lead to further unilateral liberalization by governments particularly in developing countries. The following papers contribute to this debate.

Bohara, A. K., K. Gawande, and P. Sanguinetti (2004), “”Trade Diversion and Declining Tariffs: Evidence from Mercosur” Journal of International Economics, 64(1), 65-88. [Working paper version]

Broda C., N. Limao and D. Weinstein (2008); “Optimal Tariffs and Market Power: The Evidence.”  American Economic Review, 98(5): 2032-2065. [Working paper version]

Chang W. and L.A. Winters, (2002); “How Regional Blocs Affect Excluded Countries: The Price Effects of MERCOSU.” American Economic Review, 92(4): 889-904. [Working paper version]

Estevadeordal, A., C. Freund, and E. Ornelas (2008), “Does Regionalism Affect Trade Liberalization toward Nonmembers?” Quarterly Journal Economics, 123(4), 1531-1575. [Working paper version]

Karacaovali, B. and Nuno Limao (2008) “The Clash of Liberalizations: Preferential vs. Multilateral Trade Liberalization in the European Union” Journal of International Economics, 74(2) 299-327. [Working paper version]

Limao, N. (2006), “Preferential Trade Agreements as Stumbling Blocks for Multilateral Trade Liberalization: Evidence for the United States”  American Economic Review, 96(3), 896-–914. [Working paper version]