The rules of the game

The aim of this master thesis is to investigate if WTO members' shifting behaviour in the Dispute Settlement Mechanism may be explained using a game theoretic approach. To do this, the author uses a three step process: First, a thorough quantitative analysis of how the DSM works and how the members behave in it is carried out. Second, with the result from the first part in mind, a game theoretic model pointing out different possible strategies that may be pursued in the DSM is constructed. And third, the implications of the model are compared with the findings in the first part in order to evaluate whether the model could be used to explain the members? different behaviour in the DSM or not. The main result is that many aspects of the member states? strategies could be explained whit the constructed model but as a few commonly used strategies seem completely irrational from the model's perspective it is far from a perfect explanation