The reasons for an unbalanced exchange could be explained through these four types of interdependencies.
II. Martin and Simmons: Theories and Empirical Studies of International.
Institutions.
The authors surveyed the studies of international institutions since the post world war II period. The authors pointed out that the studies of international institutions so far have been a response to the realist agenda, focusing on proving that institutions matter. They then proposed recommendations for future studies in international institutions by drawing on recent models of domestic politics, which are based on similar assumptions that characterize international relations. These models are based on non-cooperative game theory which assume that actors are rational, strategic, opportunistic and agreements must be self enforcing. They also stressed the need to broaden the focus of studies by considering institutions as objects of strategic choice and consequential, treating them as independent as well as dependent variables. .
These domestic models can be organized into informational models and distributional models. Informational models concentrate on ways in which legislative structures allows legislators to avoid inefficient outcomes. In international field, these models can be used to explain the role of institutions in the provision of information and its effects on state behaviour. Distributional models concentrate on the fact that legislators have different focus on a range of issues. Distributional models could be useful to explore the role of institutional institutions in dealing with issue linkages.
In pursuing institutionalist research agenda, particularly the rationalist-functionalist approaches, the authors pointed out the need to distinguish between collaboration and coordination problems. Collaboration problems are characterized by the existence of non-Pareto optimal equilibria, while coordination problems are characterized by the existence of multiple Pareto optimal equilibria.