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Trade Policy, Trade Costs, and Developing Country Trade

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  • Hoekman , Bernard

    () (The World Bank)

  • Nicita, Alessandro

    (UNCTAD)

Abstract

This paper briefly reviews new indices of trade restrictiveness and trade facilitation that have been developed at the World Bank. The paper also compares the trade impact of different types of trade restrictions applied at the border with the effects of domestic policies that affect trade costs. Based on a gravity regression framework, the analysis suggests that tariffs and non-tariff measures continue to be a significant source of trade restrictiveness for low-income countries despite preferential access programs. This is because the value of trade preferences is quite limited: a new measure of the relative preference margin developed in the paper reveals that this is very low for most country-pairs. Most countries with very good (duty-free) access to a market generally have competitors that have the same degree of access. The empirical analysis suggests that measures to improve logistics performance and facilitate trade are likely to have the greatest positive effects in expanding developing country trade, increasing the trade impacts of lowering remaining border barriers by a factor of two or more.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by The World Bank in its series Policy Research Working Paper Series with number 4797.

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Length: 23 pages
Date of creation: 01 Dec 2008
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4797

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Keywords: Tariffs; nontariff measures; trade facilitation; logistics; economic development; Doha Round;

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References

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  1. Kee, Hiau Looi & Nicita, Alessandro & Olarreaga, Marcelo, 2006. "Estimating trade restrictiveness indices," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3840, The World Bank.
  2. Lawless, Martina, 2008. "Deconstructing Gravity: Trade Costs and Extensive and Intensive Margins," Research Technical Papers 5/RT/08, Central Bank of Ireland.
  3. Martijn Burger & Frank van Oort & Gert-Jan Linders, 2009. "On the Specification of the Gravity Model of Trade: Zeros, Excess Zeros and Zero-inflated Estimation," Spatial Economic Analysis, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 4(2), pages 167-190.
  4. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2004. "Trade Costs," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 593, Boston College Department of Economics.
  5. Baier, Scott L. & Bergstrand, Jeffrey H., 2009. "Bonus vetus OLS: A simple method for approximating international trade-cost effects using the gravity equation," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(1), pages 77-85, February.
  6. Francois, Joseph & Manchin, Miriam, 2007. "Institutions, infrastructure, and trade," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4152, The World Bank.
  7. Hiau Looi Kee & Alessandro Nicita & Marcelo Olarreaga, 2008. "Import Demand Elasticities and Trade Distortions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(4), pages 666-682, November.
  8. James E. Anderson & Douglas Marcouiller, S.J., 1999. "Insecurity and the Pattern of Trade: An Empirical Investigation," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 418, Boston College Department of Economics, revised 03 Aug 2000.
  9. Baier, Scott L. & Bergstrand, Jeffrey H., 2004. "Economic determinants of free trade agreements," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 29-63, October.
  10. Joao Santos Silva & Silvana Tenreyro, 2005. "The Log of Gravity," CEP Discussion Papers dp0701, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
  11. Bernard, Andrew B. & Jensen, J. Bradford & Redding, Stephen & Schott, Peter K., 2009. "The margins of US trade," Open Access publications from London School of Economics and Political Science http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/, London School of Economics and Political Science.
  12. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen & Stephen J. Redding & Peter K. Schott, 2009. "The Margins of U.S. Trade (Long Version)," NBER Working Papers 14662, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  13. Simeon Djankov & Caroline Freund & Cong S. Pham, 2010. "Trading on Time," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(1), pages 166-173, February.
  14. Alessandro Nicita & Marcelo Olarreaga, 2007. "Trade, Production, and Protection Database, 1976--2004," World Bank Economic Review, World Bank Group, vol. 21(1), pages 165-171.
  15. Baier, Scott L; Bergstrand, Jeffery H; Mariutto, Roland., 2010. "The Growth of Bilateralism," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 12, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
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Citations

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Cited by:
  1. Douglas H. Brooks & Susan F. Stone, 2010. "Accelerating Regional Integration : Issues at the Border," Trade Working Papers 23009, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
  2. Seker, Murat, 2011. "Trade policies, investment climate, and exports across countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5654, The World Bank.
  3. Fugazza, Marco & Nicita, Alessandro, 2011. "Measuring preferential market access," MPRA Paper 38565, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  4. Jeevika Weerahewa, 2009. "Impact of Trade Facilitation Measures and Regional Trade Agreements on Food and Agricultural Tarde in South Asia," Working Papers 6909, Asia-Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade (ARTNeT), an initiative of UNESCAP and IDRC, Canada..
  5. Yann Duval & Chorthip Utoktham, 2009. "Behind the Border Trade Facilitation in Asia-Pacific: Cost of Trade, Credit Information, Contract Enforcement and Regulatory Coherence," Working Papers 6709, Asia-Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade (ARTNeT), an initiative of UNESCAP and IDRC, Canada..
  6. Pierluigi Montalbano & Silvia Nenci, 2012. "Assessing the Trade Impact of the European Neighborhood Policy on EU-MED Free Trade Area," Departmental Working Papers of Economics - University 'Roma Tre' 0147, Department of Economics - University Roma Tre.
  7. Prabir De, 2009. "Global economic and financial crisis: India’s trade potential and future prospects," Working Papers 6409, Asia-Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade (ARTNeT), an initiative of UNESCAP and IDRC, Canada..
  8. Vaqar, Ahmed & Ghulam, Samad, 2011. "Trade facilitation for economic corridors in South Asia: the perspective of Pakistan," MPRA Paper 31368, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  9. Seker, Murat, 2011. "Trade Policies, Investment Climate,and Exports," MPRA Paper 29905, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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