Preferential trade agreements: drivers, design and effects

Little systematic data on the architecture and design of the growing number of PTAs exists. We suggest a novel coding scheme that goes beyond existing attempts in economics and law. We will collect data on over 350 agreements and will include measures on flexibility, coverage, commitments, trade integration and delegation features (e.g. dispute settlement). The data will be used to study the causes, design as well as specific economic and global political consequences of PTAs.

Four research questions inform the project:
Drivers: What explains the emerging patterns of preferential trade agreements? Here we attempt to shed light on the evolving new regionalism. We will investigate dominating factors that explain countries' participation in PTAs and overall patterns of the new regionalism.

Design: What explains the content and design of these agreements? We will test a number of hypotheses that are prominent in the literature. Beyond contributing to the literature on regionalism, this research will also inform studies on institutional design in international relations.

EU versus US: To what extent are the EU and the US approaches to PTAs sui generis? The transatlantic trade powers influence the evolving new regionalism. In this respect, we willl study in more detail the EU and US approaches towards new PTAs.

Effects: What are the effects of PTAs? This will be the focus of our research in years 3 and 4. We will focus on trade flow effects and on selected diffusion effects, controlling for effects from the multilateral trading system and other means of trade liberalisation.