IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/11072.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Revisiting the Gains from Trade in EMDEs : The Case of Selected East Asian and East African Economies

Author

Listed:
  • Battogtvor,Enkhmaa
  • Majune,Socrates Kraido
  • Angella Faith Montfaucon

Abstract

Following the gains from variety literature, this paper estimates the welfare impact of growth of the variety of imported goods in 28 countries in East Africa and East Asia and compares the results. While estimating the gains from variety, the elasticities of substitution are estimated for each country at the Harmonized System six-digit level of disaggregation. More than 100,000 elasticities are estimated, and the paper constructs an exact price index to measure the welfare gains from variety growth. The findings show that from 1995 to 2021, African countries gained on average 5.47 percent of their gross domestic product (0.20 percent annually), and Asian countries excluding Bhutan gained 3.46 percent (0.13 percent annually). Bhutan, Mongolia, Rwanda, and Mozambique are among the countries with the highest gains over the sample period. The evidence indicates that the creation and extension of trade linkages can be a source of welfare, particularly for small and transitioning economies, a point that is occasionally overlooked in discussions about the positive effects of globalization and economic integration. The estimated elasticities may also be useful for other studies.

Suggested Citation

  • Battogtvor,Enkhmaa & Majune,Socrates Kraido & Angella Faith Montfaucon, 2025. "Revisiting the Gains from Trade in EMDEs : The Case of Selected East Asian and East African Economies," Policy Research Working Paper Series 11072, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:11072
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099313202242558629/pdf/IDU-68021fdd-0ff0-466d-976b-cd24c6a5d7c9.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hansen, Lars Peter, 1982. "Large Sample Properties of Generalized Method of Moments Estimators," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(4), pages 1029-1054, July.
    2. Lukas Mohler & Michael Seitz, 2012. "The gains from variety in the European Union," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 148(3), pages 475-500, September.
    3. Krugman, Paul, 1980. "Scale Economies, Product Differentiation, and the Pattern of Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(5), pages 950-959, December.
    4. Feenstra, Robert C, 1994. "New Product Varieties and the Measurement of International Prices," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(1), pages 157-177, March.
    5. Dixit, Avinash K & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1977. "Monopolistic Competition and Optimum Product Diversity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(3), pages 297-308, June.
    6. Bo Chen & Hong Ma, 2012. "Import Variety and Welfare Gain in China," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(4), pages 807-820, September.
    7. Gaulier, Guillaume & Zignago, Soledad, 2004. "Notes on BACI (analytical database of international trade). 1989-2002 version," MPRA Paper 32401, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Romer, Paul, 1994. "New goods, old theory, and the welfare costs of trade restrictions," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 5-38, February.
    9. Mohler, Lukas, 2009. "Globalization and the gains from variety: size and openness of countries and the extensive margin," MPRA Paper 17592, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Diewert, W. E., 1976. "Exact and superlative index numbers," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 115-145, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lukas Mohler, 2011. "Variety Gains from Trade in Switzerland," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 147(I), pages 45-70, March.
    2. Cristina Manteu & Sónia Cabral, 2010. "Gains from Import Variety: The Case of Portugal," Economic Bulletin and Financial Stability Report Articles and Banco de Portugal Economic Studies, Banco de Portugal, Economics and Research Department.
    3. Kancs, d'Artis & Persyn, Damiaan, 2019. "Welfare Gains from the Variety Growth," JRC Working Papers in Economics and Finance 2019-01, Joint Research Centre, European Commission.
    4. Konstantins Benkovskis & Julia Wörz, 2014. "How does taste and quality impact on import prices?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 150(4), pages 665-691, November.
    5. Lukas Mohler & Michael Seitz, 2012. "The gains from variety in the European Union," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 148(3), pages 475-500, September.
    6. Kang, Kichun, 2009. "The export price index with the effect of variety and an empirical analysis," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 385-391, March.
    7. Lukas Mohler, 2009. "Globalization and the Gains from Variety: The Case of a Small Open Economy," FIW Working Paper series 031, FIW.
    8. Bouët, Antoine & Estrades, Carmen & Laborde, David, 2011. "Households heterogeneity in a global CGE model: an illustration with the MIRAGE poverty module," Conference papers 332034, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    9. Mohler, Lukas, 2009. "Globalization and the gains from variety: size and openness of countries and the extensive margin," MPRA Paper 17592, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Konstantins Benkovskis & Julia Wörz, 2011. "How Does Quality Impact on Import Prices?," Working Papers 175, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank).
    11. Ardelean, Adina & Lugovskyy, Volodymyr, 2010. "Domestic productivity and variety gains from trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(2), pages 280-291, March.
    12. Irac, D., 2008. "Access to new imported varieties and total factor productivity: Firm level evidence from France," Working papers 204, Banque de France.
    13. Elisaveta Archanskaia & Guillaume Daudin, 2012. "Heterogeneity and the Distance Puzzle," Documents de Travail de l'OFCE 2012-17, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE).
    14. Robert C. Feenstra, 2010. "Measuring the gains from trade under monopolistic competition," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(1), pages 1-28, February.
    15. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/53r60a8s3kup1vc9ji21mi9p3 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Ulf Lewrick & Lukas Mohler & Rolf Weder, 2016. "Trade in variety and domestic production: Evidence from US manufacturing," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 49(4), pages 1631-1657, November.
    17. Lewrick, Ulf & Mohler, Lukas & Weder, Rolf, 2011. "International Trade in Variety and Domestic Production," Working papers 2011/03, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    18. Keuschnigg, Christian & Kohler, Wilhelm, 1996. "Commercial policy and dynamic adjustment under monopolistic competition," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(3-4), pages 373-409, May.
    19. Konstantins Benkovskis & Ramune Rimgailaite, 2011. "The quality and variety of exports from the new EU member states," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 19(4), pages 723-747, October.
    20. David Hummels & Volodymyr Lugovskyy, 2009. "International Pricing in a Generalized Model of Ideal Variety," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 41(s1), pages 3-33, February.
    21. Chen, Bo & Ma, Hong & Xu, Yuan, 2014. "Measuring China’s trade liberalization: A generalized measure of trade restrictiveness index," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 994-1006.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:11072. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.