Date of Award

6-2017

Document Type

Open Access

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Managerial Economics

First Advisor

Fuat Sener

Language

English

Keywords

preferential trade agreements, export, GATT, tariffs and trade

Abstract

The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) created under the World Trade Organization in 1995 established minimum standards of intellectual property rights (IPRs) for member nations. Concurrently, the US has used preferential trade agreements (PTAs) to negotiate for stronger IPR protections within its trading partners.

This paper empirically accesses the effects of PTAs on US exports. I use a gravity model of trade to analyze changes in US exports to 19 trading partners who signed a PTA with the US during the period 1991-2015. I regress US exports on dummy (binary) variables that identify the signing and entry-into-force of the PTAs. I control for a variety of country indicators such as GDP, real exchange rate, and trade openness. I also distinguish between high-tech and low-tech industries and create interaction terms with high-tech pharmaceutical exports. I find empirical evidence that US exports increase at the aggregate level and for high-tech industries after signing PTAs.

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