In 2002 Andrew Rose of Berkeley took at look at the data on trade between nations to see if members of the WTO (formerly the GATT) traded more with each other than with countries that were non-members.
To his surprise, he didn't find much evidence that they did. The web page with his results is here: Rose trade research papers . This page also contains links to critiques of his work, and to his responses to those critiques. Jonathan Dingel, at Trade Diversion reports on Rose's results: "Does the WTO liberalize trade?".
This week's Economist reports on the state of the debate at this point of time: "Is there any point to the WTO?". Dingel reports here: "Yes, the WTO does liberalize trade".
Hi Ben,
I think there is a danger in leaving this issue to academic economists: they spread the 'no use' message, which everyone gets, but then descend in to technical arguments about data and analytical tools which no-one else gets.
I tried to reply to Rose a couple of years ago here (http://www.inquit.com/24/does-wto-membership-increase-trade). But my impression is that this story (http://www.inquit.com/164/yes-virginia-the-wto-matters-a-great-deal) is a more telling -- and almost plausible -- response.
Posted by: Peter Gallagher | August 10, 2005 at 01:32 PM