DESTA wins award for best dataset

At its annual conference held at the University of Texas, Austin on 17-18 November IPES awarded DESTA its first-ever prize for best dataset. The prize will be awarded every three years.

Leonardo Baccini of McGill University received the award on behalf of the team which also includes Manfred Elsig (Deputy Managing Director, World Trade Institute), and Andreas Dür (University of Salzburg).

Announcing the recognition earlier this year, IPES Steering Committee Chair Helen Milner said that DESTA “provided a wonderful public good”.

Professor Elsig thanked his colleagues and all team members who had contributed towards building the dataset for their “hard and dedicated team work”. “This will give us all extra energy for years to come,” he added.

DESTA was originally set up in 2009 as a project within the NCCR Trade Regulation network financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation. It aims to systematically collect design features of various types of preferential trade agreements (PTAs). It has so far coded and analysed more than 700 treaties. Further information can be found at www.designoftradeagreements.org