Bernard Hoekman
Biographic Data
| ID | 1632289 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bernard Hoekman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bernard |
| FAMILY NAME | Hoekman |
| SIGNATURE | HOEKMAN B |
| AFFILIATIONS | European University Institute |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6839-7142 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 46 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 92 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 46 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1988 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Government demand and firm growth
Public procurement in developing countries accounts for approximately 13% of GDP, offering a significant market opportunity for domestic firms, especially those facing demand constraints. This paper explores the impact of selling to government entities on firm performance in Uganda, leveraging detailed administrative data and an event study methodology that corrects for firm self-selection and heterogeneity in the timing of the treatment. The res…
Value‐Added in African Exports and Rules of Origin
Rules of origin (ROO) are criteria determining when goods are eligible for trade preferences. A common feature of ROO is to require that products embody a minimum share of value originating in the exporting country or group of beneficiary countries. Using disaggregated trade data, we estimate the levels of restrictiveness of ROO that maximise the domestic or regional value‐added embedded in African preferential exports. We uncover significant het…
Global governance through voluntary sustainability standards
Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) are transnational governance instruments that can be leveraged to pursue sustainable development in global value chains. They have proliferated since the 1990s in terms of their number and the share of global production they govern. This paper shares some key insights arising from the considerable body of literature that has analysed the role of these instruments for sustainable production and trade. First…
Discretion and public procurement outcomes in Europe
Public procurement regulations aim to ensure the state minimizes contract award prices by specifying the processes to be used in issuing calls for tenders and award of contracts. Cost minimization goals may be complemented by ancillary objectives such as supporting small firms or disadvantaged groups. Recent theory suggests procurement regulations and practices constraining the ability to exercise discretion in awarding contracts may increase ave…
Agri-food value chains and the global food dollar
The evolution of agricultural value chains is influenced by numerous societal and economic dynamics, including trade and servicification of the economy. In this paper we analyze margins along agrifood value chains, proxied by the share of the Global Food Dollar accruing to farmers, controlling for differences in GDP and economic development levels. International trade and the increasingly diverse roles played by services in upstream and downstrea…
Services trade policy and industry performance in African economies
This paper assesses the potential impacts of services trade liberalisation for a sample of African countries. The focus is on the relationship between labour productivity of manufacturing sectors and two types of services trade‐related policies – restrictions on foreign direct investment (FDI) in services and restrictions on international payments for invisibles. The analysis takes into account differences across manufacturing sectors in the inte…
Geopolitical competition, globalisation and WTO reform
This paper discusses options to manage spillovers of unilateral trade policies motivated by national security and other non‐economic objectives on global trade and investment. Within the WTO framework, we argue a ‘specific trade concern’ mechanism is likely to be more effective than dispute settlement to address national security‐motivated trade intervention. More broadly, we propose creation of a platform for governments, supported by relevant i…
Trade and value chain participation
Data on the location of foreign direct investment (FDI) projects within and across African nations are combined with firm‐level survey data and information on sectoral input–output relationships to assess what types of FDI are more likely to influence participation in global value chains (GVCs) and to investigate the relationship between FDI and the performance of proximate domestic firms. Firm‐level analysis finds evidence of vertical spillovers…
The Geneva effect
Do representatives of member states in Geneva and officials based in capitals agree on priorities for cooperation in the World Trade Organization? Exploiting an original survey of trade policy officials, we find that respondents representing their countries in Geneva often accord substantially different priorities to institutional reform and policy issues than officials based in capitals. We hypothesize that this ‘Geneva effect’ reflects bureaucr…
Development Goals, commercial interest and EU Aid-for-Trade
The extent to which official development assistance (ODA) conforms to internationally agreed goals and principles of aid effectiveness may be influenced by donors’ national interests. Disentangling the extent to which national ODA is motivated by development goals vs. commercial self-interest is difficult. European Union (EU) member states provide external aid through EU-level institutions and independently through national aid programs. Theory s…
Trade policy responses to the Covid‐19 pandemic crisis
This paper presents new high‐frequency data on trade policy changes targeting medical and food products since the beginning of the COVID‐19 pandemic, documenting how countries used trade policy instruments in response to the health crisis on a week‐by‐week basis. The data set reveals a rapid increase in trade policy activism in February and March 2020 in tandem with the rise in COVID‐19 cases but also uncovers extensive heterogeneity across count…
Covid‐19, public procurement regimes and trade policy
This paper analyses a prominent dimension of the initial policy response to the COVID‐19 pandemic observed in many countries: the imposition of export restrictions and actions to facilitate imports. Using weekly data on the use of trade policy instruments during the first seven months of the COVID‐19 pandemic (January–July, 2020), we assess the relationship between the use of trade policy instruments and attributes of pre‐crisis public procuremen…
On Trade Agreements and a Social Reproduction Approach to GVCs
The 15 years following the 2008–2009 global financial crisis witnessed increasing questioning in the global North of the distribution of the gains and costs of an open world economy and the multilateral rules-based trade order. Difficulties in (re-)negotiating trade agreements in the World Trade Organization led states to shift even more of their focus to reciprocal and bilateral trade agreements as these internalize benefits among partners by co…
Plurilateral Cooperation as an Alternative to Trade Agreements
At the end of 2017 different groups of WTO members decided to launch talks on four subjects, setting aside the WTO consensus working practice. This paper argues that these ‘joint statement initiatives’ (JSIs) should seek to establish open plurilateral agreements (OPAs) even in instances where the outcome can be incorporated into existing schedules of commitments of participating WTO members. Designing agreements as OPAs provides an institutional …
WTO Reform
Since its formation, with a few notable exceptions, WTO members have not been able to negotiate new rules on policies that generate negative international spillovers. The Doha Development Agenda negotiations, launched in 2001, became deadlocked in 2008. Problems extend beyond negotiations – other functions of the WTO are also not performing well. The dispute settlement mechanism, long perceived as the crown jewel of the organization, no longer is…
Stakeholder Preferences and Priorities for the Next WTO Director General
This paper reports on the results of an expert survey to solicit views on what WTO members and the international trade community consider the most important attributes of the Director‐General of the WTO and the substantive policy and institutional reform priorities confronting the WTO. The results suggest strong support for a leader with managerial and political experience, and a professional network that spans international organizations, major …
Aid for Trade and Trade in Services
Existing research generally finds weak positive effects of aid for trade (AfT) on aggregate merchandise trade of recipients once endogeneity in the AfT-trade relationship is accounted for. In this paper, we confirm weak findings for both aggregate merchandise and services trade of recipients, using GMM and IV estimations. Moreover, estimates lose statistical significance if non-AfT explanatory variables are treated as endogenous in estimation sug…
Preventing the Bad from Getting Worse
Recent survey evidence illustrates that many World Trade Organization (WTO) members and trade practitioners believe that the WTO dispute settlement system needs improvement. We make several proposals to improve the operation of WTO conflict resolution, drawing on proposals made by WTO members in the long-running negotiations to improve WTO dispute settlement procedures. We argue that a focus on technical dimensions of dispute settlement is insuff…
EU Trade and Non‐trade Objectives
EU trade policy increasingly focuses on the achievement of non‐trade policy objectives (NTPOs) such as the promotion of human rights or environmental protection, motivating research on the political economy determinants and effectiveness of linking trade policy and NTPOs. This research reports selected findings from a new expert survey of stakeholder perceptions of trade–NTPO linkages. These suggest that the views of EU institutions align with th…
Rethinking international subsidy rules
Geo‐economic tensions, notably associated with the rise of China, and global collective action problems—climate change and the COVID‐19pandemic—call for international cooperation to revise and develop rules to guide both the use of domestic subsidies and responses by governments to cross‐border competition spillover effects. Current WTO rules dividing all subsidies into prohibited or actionable categories are no longer fit for purpose. Piecemeal …
How Should We Think about the Winners and Losers from Globalization? A Reply to Nicolas Lamp
How should we think about the winners and losers from globalization? What role can narrative analysis play in doing so? We argue that to be useful, identifying politically relevant narratives on the distributional effects of globalization, and the role played by trade agreements in fostering such effects, must have an empirical basis. Characterizing different narratives and inferring from each the implications for the (re-)design of international…
Services policy reform and manufacturing employment
Policy reforms targeting the services sectors are a neglected dimension of the process of structural transformation and economic development. The effects of such reforms on employment across industries as a function of their use of services as intermediate inputs are theoretically ambiguous and remain largely understudied. This paper uses sector‐level data for 24 transition economies for the 1990–2012 period to assess the impacts of services poli…
Services trade policy and sustainable development
Reducing Home Bias in Public Procurement
Published online: 19 August 2018
MFN Clubs and Scheduling Additional Commitments in the Gatt
non-tariff policy measures affecting trade in goods. This is not the case for trade in services, as the
The Political Economy of the World Trading System
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is likely to be a major international organization for the foreseeable future. This volume surveys the WTO and GATT from the viewpoint of public choice and political economy, detailing the mechanics of the multilateral trading system that emerged from the Uruguay round of GATT. The authors, who were involved in the negotiations of the Uruguay talks, explain why WTO rules are phrased the way they are, the success…
Transfer of technology to developing countries
Trade Policy, Trade Costs, and Developing Country Trade
Determining the need for issue linkages in multilateral trade negotiations
In multilateral trade negotiations, trade-offs usually are made within the issue-areas that are on the agenda. In the absence of cross-issue trade-offs (linkages), agreement may not be possible. To maximize both the potential gains from trade and the scope for agreement, negotiators need to be willing and able to consider the feasibility of issue linkages. This raises the practical problem of determining when such trade-offs are likely to be nece…
EU Trade and Non‐trade Objectives
EU trade policy increasingly focuses on the achievement of non‐trade policy objectives (NTPOs) such as the promotion of human rights or environmental protection, motivating research on the political economy determinants and effectiveness of linking trade policy and NTPOs. This research reports selected findings from a new expert survey of stakeholder perceptions of trade–NTPO linkages. These suggest that the views of EU institutions align with th…
Lobbying and Agricultural Trade Policy in the United States
The authors study whether political campaign contributions influence agricultural protection in the United States in the manner suggested by the political economy model of Grossman and Helpman (1994). This is the first attempt to test this model using agricultural data. The authors test the model using a detailed cross-sectional data set of agricultural protection, subsidies, and political action committee (PAC) contributions in the late 1990s. T…
Services trade policy and sustainable development
Free trade agreements in the Mediterranean
1998). Free trade agreements in the Mediterranean: a regional path towards liberalisation. The Journal of North African Studies: Vol. 3, Perspectives on Devlopment: The Euro ̃Mediterranean Partnership, pp. 89-104
Regional and Multilateral Liberalization of Service Markets
WTO ‘à la carte’ or ‘menu du jour’? Assessing the Case for More Plurilateral Agreements
Plurilateral agreements in the context of the World Trade Organization (WTO) allow sub-sets of countries to agree to commitments in specific policy areas that only apply to signatories and thus allow for ‘variable geometry’ in the WTO. Plurilateral agreements share a number of features with preferential trade agreements (PTAs), which are increasingly used by governments to liberalize trade in goods and services. This article discusses the current…
The Euro–Mediterranean Partnership
This article discusses options to facilitate movement of workers between high‐income and developing countries within the framework of trade agreements, focusing on the European Union's partnership agreements with neighbouring countries. Existing frameworks for co‐operation offer the possibility of expanding temporary rather than longer‐term or permanent movement of workers since extant trade agreements provide scope for negotiating specific marke…
Cleaning up? while cleaning up? Pollution abatement, interest groups and contingent trade policies
Agri-food value chains and the global food dollar
The evolution of agricultural value chains is influenced by numerous societal and economic dynamics, including trade and servicification of the economy. In this paper we analyze margins along agrifood value chains, proxied by the share of the Global Food Dollar accruing to farmers, controlling for differences in GDP and economic development levels. International trade and the increasingly diverse roles played by services in upstream and downstrea…
The Geneva effect
Do representatives of member states in Geneva and officials based in capitals agree on priorities for cooperation in the World Trade Organization? Exploiting an original survey of trade policy officials, we find that respondents representing their countries in Geneva often accord substantially different priorities to institutional reform and policy issues than officials based in capitals. We hypothesize that this ‘Geneva effect’ reflects bureaucr…
Reducing Home Bias in Public Procurement
Published online: 19 August 2018
MFN Clubs and Scheduling Additional Commitments in the Gatt
non-tariff policy measures affecting trade in goods. This is not the case for trade in services, as the
The World Trade Order
The World Trade Organization (WTO) Appellate Body has established itself as an authoritative court through which WTO members settle disputes. It has done so in parallel to contested multilateral negotiations (the Doha Round) that ultimately were unsuccessful and a deteriorating environment for efforts towards deepening integration. In his article in this volume, Robert Howse characterizes the consequence of this disconnect as the emergence of 'gl…
Effective protection and investment incentives in Egypt and Jordan during the transition to free trade With Europe
Conceptual Issues Relating to Services in the International Economy
Distinguishing Characteristics of Goods and Services In his especially insightful paper
Conceptual Issues Relating to Services in the International Economy
Distinguishing Characteristics of Goods and Services In his especially insightful paper
Determining the need for issue linkages in multilateral trade negotiations
In multilateral trade negotiations, trade-offs usually are made within the issue-areas that are on the agenda. In the absence of cross-issue trade-offs (linkages), agreement may not be possible. To maximize both the potential gains from trade and the scope for agreement, negotiators need to be willing and able to consider the feasibility of issue linkages. This raises the practical problem of determining when such trade-offs are likely to be nece…
New Issues in the Uruguay Round and Beyond
The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is a treaty establishing a framework of rules and principles for policies affecting merchandise trade. It also provides a forum in which sovereign states periodically engage in reciprocal trade liberalisation and rule making.2 As a result of substantial reductions in tariffs through periodic 'rounds' of multilateral negotiations, rule making has gradually become as, if not more, important than lib…
Cleaning up? while cleaning up? Pollution abatement, interest groups and contingent trade policies
Regional and Multilateral Liberalization of Service Markets
Policy Externalities and High-Tech Rivalry
Governments have increasingly been giving attention to the need for, and prospects of, ensuring contestability of markets through international agreements. This paper explores what has been achieved so far in the context of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and what might be done to further enhance the ‘competition-friendliness’ of the multilateral trading system. The case of high-technology industrial rivalry is used for concreteness. High-tech…
The Political Economy of the World Trading System
The World Trade Organization (WTO) is likely to be a major international organization for the foreseeable future. This volume surveys the WTO and GATT from the viewpoint of public choice and political economy, detailing the mechanics of the multilateral trading system that emerged from the Uruguay round of GATT. The authors, who were involved in the negotiations of the Uruguay talks, explain why WTO rules are phrased the way they are, the success…
Effective protection and investment incentives in Egypt and Jordan during the transition to free trade With Europe
Free trade agreements in the Mediterranean
1998). Free trade agreements in the Mediterranean: a regional path towards liberalisation. The Journal of North African Studies: Vol. 3, Perspectives on Devlopment: The Euro ̃Mediterranean Partnership, pp. 89-104
Foreign Investment and Productivity Growth in Czech Enterprises
This article uses firm-level data for the Czech Republic to show that during 1992–96 foreign investment had the predicted positive impact on total factor productivity growth of recipient firms. This result is robust to corrections for the sample bias that arises because foreign companies tend to invest in firms whose initial productivity is above average. Together, joint ventures and foreign direct investment appear to have a negative spillover e…
Developing-Country Agriculture and the New Trade Agenda
DEVELOPING COUNTRY AGRICULTURE AND THE NEW TRADE AGENDA Bernard Hoekman and Kym Anderson A new round of WTO negotiations on agriculture, services and perhaps some other issues is expected to be launched in late 1999. To what extent should those negotiations include socalled "new trade agenda" items aimed at ensuring that domestic regulatory policies do not discriminate against foreign suppliers? We argue in this paper that while market access neg…
Transfer of technology to developing countries
Tariff bindings and bilateral cooperation on export cartels
Lobbying and Agricultural Trade Policy in the United States
The authors study whether political campaign contributions influence agricultural protection in the United States in the manner suggested by the political economy model of Grossman and Helpman (1994). This is the first attempt to test this model using agricultural data. The authors test the model using a detailed cross-sectional data set of agricultural protection, subsidies, and political action committee (PAC) contributions in the late 1990s. T…
The Euro–Mediterranean Partnership
This article discusses options to facilitate movement of workers between high‐income and developing countries within the framework of trade agreements, focusing on the European Union's partnership agreements with neighbouring countries. Existing frameworks for co‐operation offer the possibility of expanding temporary rather than longer‐term or permanent movement of workers since extant trade agreements provide scope for negotiating specific marke…
Trade Policy, Trade Costs, and Developing Country Trade
Liberalizing Trade in Services
Liberalization of trade and investment in services through trade agreements has progressed less than trade in goods. We review the limited progress achieved to date in the WTO and major regional agreements on services and possible explanations why trade agreements have not been more effective at integrating the services markets of participating countries. We argue that the prospects for both services liberalization and welfare-enhancing regulator…
WTO ‘à la carte’ or ‘menu du jour’? Assessing the Case for More Plurilateral Agreements
Plurilateral agreements in the context of the World Trade Organization (WTO) allow sub-sets of countries to agree to commitments in specific policy areas that only apply to signatories and thus allow for ‘variable geometry’ in the WTO. Plurilateral agreements share a number of features with preferential trade agreements (PTAs), which are increasingly used by governments to liberalize trade in goods and services. This article discusses the current…
Services Policy Reform and Manufacturing Employment
The World Trade Order
The World Trade Organization (WTO) Appellate Body has established itself as an authoritative court through which WTO members settle disputes. It has done so in parallel to contested multilateral negotiations (the Doha Round) that ultimately were unsuccessful and a deteriorating environment for efforts towards deepening integration. In his article in this volume, Robert Howse characterizes the consequence of this disconnect as the emergence of 'gl…
MFN Clubs and Scheduling Additional Commitments in the Gatt
non-tariff policy measures affecting trade in goods. This is not the case for trade in services, as the
Services policy reform and manufacturing employment
Policy reforms targeting the services sectors are a neglected dimension of the process of structural transformation and economic development. The effects of such reforms on employment across industries as a function of their use of services as intermediate inputs are theoretically ambiguous and remain largely understudied. This paper uses sector‐level data for 24 transition economies for the 1990–2012 period to assess the impacts of services poli…
Services trade policy and sustainable development
Reducing Home Bias in Public Procurement
Published online: 19 August 2018
Economics (40 works) · Business (35 works) · International trade (33 works) · Global trade and economics (31 works) · International economics (29 works) · Political science (28 works) · World Trade Organization Law (15 works) · International Development and Aid (13 works) · Politics (13 works) · Law (12 works)