The main reason why developing countries make trade agreements with the US is because they want to implement economic reforms. The US sets strict conditions during negotiations, and only if the developing country meets these conditions, an agreement is reached. The researchers used a two-stage bargaining process to model this situation and tested their hypotheses with data from 142 countries between 1990 and 2007. They found that the desire of developing countries to carry out economic reforms is the main driver of bilateral trade agreements with the US.