Three essays on international trade

Abstract

International trade and trade liberalization is the logical nexus through this thesis. Not only trade volumes have largely expanded after World War II, but - perhaps less known - also the number of developing and underdeveloped countries opening their markets to international trade has increased sharply in the 80s and the 90s. During the period 1960-1998 the average share of import plus export in total GDP rose from less than 0.55 up to 0.75 and the total volume of merchandise trade rose steadily at a rate of 10.7%. The greater openness of many developing countries is mirrored by the large membership WTO has reached - almost 150 countries. While the number of participating countries at the first round of GATT in 1947 were a bit more than 20, slightly above 100 were sitting in the last GATT round (the Uruguay round).