We model agents’ incentives to invest in production of export goods when governments are commitment constrained with respect to their trade obligations. Once irreversible investments have been undertaken, the governments have incentives to renegotiate the tariff rates to higher values. The renegotiations are costly; the greater the tariff rate adjustment, the greater the expenses. We find that ...

Among the many reasons that may limit the adoption of promising reform ideas, policy capacity is the least recognized. The concept itself is not widely understood. Although policy capacity is concerned with the gathering of information and the formulation of options for public action in the initial phases of policy consultation and development, it also touches on all stages of the policy proces...

The main aspects of the building process of the Euro-Mediterranean security system are assessed in this article with the tools of analysis of the regional security systems. The Mediterranean security project is also compared with other forms and cases of regional security system. The presence of other multilateral initiatives on Mediterranean security is pointed out as a strategic tool for the ...

We study the endogenous formation of free trade agreements (FTAs) in a symmetric three-country model with vertically related markets characterized by Cournot competition. We analyze the coalition-proof Nash equilibria in an FTA formation game in which each country forms an FTA with one, both, or none of its trading partners. We show that multilateral free trade is the unique stable equilibrium ...

Grid computing enables the sharing of heterogeneous resources within virtual organizations. Since entities in virtual organizations are independently administrated, cross-domain management of access control and intrusion protection is critical for grid services. To provide better protection in grid systems, multiple domains collaborate in making security decisions. Unfortunately, the absence of...

Though the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) has failed, the original draft is likely to serve as a basis for future negotiations. This article gives a critical assessment of the draft from an industrial economics point of view. First, I summarize the contents of the agreement which is relevant for market structure and competition. Then I develop the industrial economics approach, whic...

We examine antitrust rules in a two county general equilibrium trade model, contrasting national and multilateral (cooperative) determination of competition policy, exploring the properties of policy equilibrium. It is not imperfect competition, but variation in competitive stance between sectors that matters for trading partners. Beggar-thy-neighbor competition policies relate to countries’ co...

It is no coincidence that in recent years Brazil has been invited to participate (even with a less-than-expected role) in meetings of the group of richest countries, in meetings of several groups of countries concerned with the multilateral negotiations at the World Trade Organization, at the same time that former Brazilian authorities often take part in selected groups of experts dealing with ...

South African popular movement analysts and activists participating in African and international civil society meetings on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and other multilateral institutions, such as the IMF and the World Bank, are frequently faced with troubled and troubling questions about the position that the South African government has taken, and what is seen to be the highly questiona...