Ken Shadlen, along with Mark Manger (formerly of LSE), has been awarded the Open Article prize for 2014 from the Economics and Politics Section of the Latin American Studies Association.

Their prizewinning paper, ‘Political Trade Dependence and North–South Trade Agreements’, was published in the International Studies Quarterly journal in March last year (full citation below).

The research was funded by the LSE’s Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines (STICERD).

The Economics and Politics selection committee, Tony Spanakos (chair), Felipe Filomeno, and Pablo Toral, provided the following feedback on the work:

“We found the article to be a very strong contribution to understanding the political economy of international trade.

“It addresses an important puzzle (why do countries in the global south seek regional trade agreements with countries where a generalized preference already exists especially when the RTA means concessions on the part of the low-income country). With an innovative theory and broad quantitative analysis, the authors suggest that political trade dependence encourages countries in the global south to pursue such agreements.

“While their theory and data are not limited to Latin American cases, the robust growth of trade agreements within Latin America and between Latin American countries and an increasingly broad group of countries speaks to how relevant such research is.”

We found the article to be a very strong contribution to understanding the political economy of international trade.

The department extends its congratulations to Ken and Mark on their achievement.

Full citation:

Mark S. Manger and Kenneth C. Shadlen, ‘Political Trade Dependence and North–South Trade Agreements,’ International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 58, No. 1, March 2014, pp. 79-91.