TY  - JOUR
AU  - Bagwell,Kyle
AU  - Staiger,Robert W.
TI  - The WTO: Theory and Practice
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 15445
PY  - 2009
Y2  - October 2009
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15445
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w15445.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Kyle Bagwell
Department of Economics
Stanford University
Landau Economics Building
579 Serra Mall
Stanford, CA 94305-6072
Tel: (650) 723-3251
E-Mail: kbagwell@stanford.edu

Robert W. Staiger
Department of Economics
Stanford University
Landau Economics Building
579 Serra Mall
Stanford, CA  94305-6072
Tel: 650/723-0533
Fax: 650/725-5702
E-Mail: rstaiger@stanford.edu
AB  - We consider the purpose and design of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its predecessor, GATT. We review recent developments in the relevant theoretical and empirical literature. And we describe the GATT/WTO architecture and briefly trace its historical antecedents. We suggest that the existing literature provides a useful framework for understanding and interpreting central features of the design and practice of the GATT/WTO, and we identify key unresolved issues.
ER  -