There are many textbooks devoted to international trade but few volumes that survey trade theory, policy, and negotiations in a concise, up-to-date manner from an interdisciplinary perspective. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the issues that dominate both academic discourse and the policymaking arena in the field of international trade, bringing to bear the insights of economics, law, and political science. It also stands out by virtue of its emphasis on the development implications of trade, an increasingly useful perspective given the deepening liberalization of developing and emerging market economies and their growing importance in the world economy. The volume examines the full range of trade policy topics that dominate contemporary debates, such as rules of origin, trade in services, competition, public procurement, and trade facilitation, plus emergent controversial topics like trade-related labour standards and environmental issues. It analyses the international trade architecture and the institutional and practical aspects of policymaking and negotiations at the unilateral, multilateral, and regional level, as well as the effects of trade on economic growth, inequality, and poverty. It also explores the sharp increase in the number of preferential trade agreements and their significance for the global trade system. The treatment of each issue is rigorous, yet highly accessible to anyone with a basic background in economics, law, and international political economy.
Arvid Lukauskas is the executive director of the Picker Center for Executive Education and the MPA in Economic Policy Management (MPA-EPM) program at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. He also directs SIPA’s summer program offered in collaboration with the School of Continuing Education.
Lukauskas teaches and conducts research on international and comparative political economy, with a focus on the political economy of finance and trade policy. His books are the Handbook of Trade Policy for Development, edited with R. Stern and G. Zanini (Oxford University Press, 2013); The Political Economy of the East Asian Crisis and its Aftermath, edited with F. Rivera-Batíz (Edward Elgar 2001); and Regulating Finance: The Political Economy of Spanish Financial Policy from Franco to Democracy (University of Michigan 1997). His articles have appeared in various scholarly journals, including Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, International Studies Quarterly, Japanese Journal of Political Science and Review of International Political Economy. He is currently working on a book-length project examining the links between economic and social development in East Asia.
Through the Picker Center, Lukauskas has helped develop or direct a number of major executive training programs in Brazil, Chile, China, Egypt, Republic of Georgia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, and Thailand as well as for UNDP and the World Bank. He was the principal investigator for a four-year USAID grant, in conjunction with the East-West Management Institute, to develop educational capacity in the Republic of Georgia. He has served as a consultant to UNDP and the World Bank Institute.
Lukauskas received a BA from University of Wisconsin, Madison, an MPA from University of Oklahoma, and his PhD from University of Pennsylvania.