Countertrade transactions: rationales, structure, outcomes

Countertrade transactions may cover 20 percent of international trade yet are little researched. testing several coherent models on 230 transactions (mainly east-west), we find: (1) strong evidence that they effect price discrimination forwestern exporters; (2) no support for a model resting on sticky disequilibrium prices; (3) limited support for a model of efficient revelation of unestablished qualities of countertraded goods; (4) evidence of bargaining power's effect on outcomes in the bargaining range; and (5) evidence that participants engage in repeated countertrade transactions, which do not rest on transitory conditions.;