Replication Data for: When are International Institutions Effective? The Impact of Domestic Veto Players on Compliance with WTO Rulings

When do international institutions promote economic cooperation among countries? The World Trade Organization (WTO) is central to the multilateral trade regime and a benchmark for international dispute resolution. Yet it remains unclear whether it has been effective in restoring trade cooperation. This article uses WTO disputes to examine the impact of domestic politics in the defendant country on compliance with adverse legal rulings. I build a novel data set on compliance. Using the method of synthetic case control, I estimate the effect of adverse rulings on trade flows between disputant countries using product-level time-series trade data. I infer the defendant complied if trade flows increased after the dispute, relative to estimated levels that would have occurred in the absence of the ruling. The results show domestic political divisions—measured by veto players—hinder compliance.

国际机构何时能够推动各国间的经济合作？世界贸易组织（World Trade Organization，WTO）是多边贸易体制的核心，亦是国际争端解决的标杆。然而，其在恢复贸易合作方面是否切实有效，目前仍不明确。本文依托WTO争端解决案例，探析被诉国的国内政治因素对其遵守不利法律裁决的影响。笔者构建了一套全新的合规性数据集。通过合成控制法（synthetic case control），本文利用产品层面时间序列贸易数据，估算不利裁决对争端当事国双边贸易流量的影响。若争端发生后，双边贸易流量相较于无裁决情境下的预估水平有所提升，则可推断被诉方已遵守裁决。研究结果显示，以否决玩家（veto players）衡量的国内政治分歧，会阻碍被诉方遵守裁决。