IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/11136.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Industrial Policy under Constraints: Evidence from Pakistan’s Export Subsidy Schemes

Author

Listed:
  • Lovo,Stefania
  • Varela, Gonzalo J.

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of an export promotion policy consisting of ad-valorem subsidies for a set of targeted products, on the performance of Pakistani exports in the textile sector. The findings show that the policy had a small overall impact on exports, while it induced substantial reallocation of exports across products. The policy induced an increase in exports of traditional products, mostly garments, which were eligible for the highest rebate rates, at the expense of non-eligible or lower-rated products. The paper presents suggestive evidence indicating that the observed effects are partially attributed to shifts in the composition of exporters, through exits and entries alongside capacity constraints. Finally, the evidence shows that the scheme induced strategic misreporting at the border, which contributed marginally to the overall effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Lovo,Stefania & Varela, Gonzalo J., 2025. "Industrial Policy under Constraints: Evidence from Pakistan’s Export Subsidy Schemes," Policy Research Working Paper Series 11136, The World Bank.
  • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:11136
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099247006032525653/pdf/IDU-3ce59b00-c710-4140-b589-f6de5a602c48.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eli Ben-Michael & Avi Feller & Jesse Rothstein, 2021. "The Augmented Synthetic Control Method," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 116(536), pages 1789-1803, October.
    2. Johannes Van Biesebroeck & Jozef Konings & Christian Volpe Martincus, 2016. "Did export promotion help firms weather the crisis?," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 31(88), pages 653-702.
    3. Ricardo Hausmann & Jason Hwang & Dani Rodrik, 2007. "What you export matters," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-25, March.
    4. Réka Juhász & Nathan Lane & Dani Rodrik, 2024. "The New Economics of Industrial Policy," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 16(1), pages 213-242, August.
    5. Stefania Lovo & Gonzalo Varela, 2022. "Internationally Linked Firms and Productivity in Pakistan: A Look at the Top End of the Distribution," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(10), pages 2110-2131, October.
    6. Ferrantino, Michael J. & Liu, Xuepeng & Wang, Zhi, 2012. "Evasion behaviors of exporters and importers: Evidence from the U.S.–China trade data discrepancy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 141-157.
    7. Volpe Martincus, Christian & Carballo, Jerónimo, 2008. "Is export promotion effective in developing countries? Firm-level evidence on the intensive and the extensive margins of exports," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(1), pages 89-106, September.
    8. Broocks, Annette & Van Biesebroeck, Johannes, 2017. "The impact of export promotion on export market entry," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 19-33.
    9. Lederman, Daniel & Olarreaga, Marcelo & Payton, Lucy, 2010. "Export promotion agencies: Do they work?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 257-265, March.
    10. Abadie, Alberto & Diamond, Alexis & Hainmueller, Jens, 2010. "Synthetic Control Methods for Comparative Case Studies: Estimating the Effect of California’s Tobacco Control Program," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 105(490), pages 493-505.
    11. Christian Helmers & Natalia Trofimenko, 2013. "The Use and Abuse of Export Subsidies: Evidence from Colombia," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 465-486, April.
    12. Volpe Martincus, Christian & Carballo, Jerónimo, 2010. "Beyond the average effects: The distributional impacts of export promotion programs in developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 201-214, July.
    13. Alberto Abadie & Alexis Diamond & Jens Hainmueller, 2015. "Comparative Politics and the Synthetic Control Method," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 59(2), pages 495-510, February.
    14. Javorcik, Beata S. & Narciso, Gaia, 2017. "WTO accession and tariff evasion," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 59-71.
    15. Jakob Munch & Georg Schaur, 2018. "The Effect of Export Promotion on Firm-Level Performance," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 357-387, February.
    16. repec:osf:socarx:gsyq4_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Alberto Abadie & Jérémy L’Hour, 2021. "A Penalized Synthetic Control Estimator for Disaggregated Data," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 116(536), pages 1817-1834, October.
    18. Volpe Martincus, Christian & Carballo, Jerónimo, 2010. "Beyond the average effects: The distributional impacts of export promotion programs in developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 201-214, July.
    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. Srhoj, Stjepan & Vitezic, Vanja & Wagner, Joachim, 2020. "Export boosting policies and firm behaviour: Review of empirical evidence around the world," MPRA Paper 104330, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. (ed.), 0. "Research Handbook on Economic Diplomacy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 16053.
    3. Simona Comi & Laura Resmini, 2020. "Are export promotion programs effective in promoting the internalization of SMEs?," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 37(2), pages 547-581, July.
    4. Defever, Fabrice & Reyes, José-Daniel & Riaño, Alejandro & Varela, Gonzalo, 2020. "All these worlds are yours, except india: The effectiveness of cash subsidies to export in nepal," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    5. Philipp Barteska & Jay Euijung Lee, 2024. "Bureaucrats and the Korean export miracle," Discussion Papers 2024-11, Nottingham Interdisciplinary Centre for Economic and Political Research (NICEP).
    6. Olarreaga, Marcelo & Sperlich, Stefan & Trachsel, Virginie, 2016. "Export Promotion: what works?," CEPR Discussion Papers 11270, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Jerónimo Carballo & Ignacio Marra de Artiñano & Christian Volpe Martincus, 2021. "Information Frictions, Investment Promotion, and Multinational Production: Firm-Level Evidence," CESifo Working Paper Series 9043, CESifo.
    8. Ryo Makioka, 2021. "The impact of export promotion with matchmaking on exports and service outsourcing," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1418-1450, November.
    9. Ahmed Boutorat & Loe Franssen, 2023. "Economic missions and firm internationalization: evidence from the Netherlands," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 159(3), pages 787-826, August.
    10. Kahiya, Eldrede T., 2024. "A problematization review of export assistance: Debates and future directions," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(1).
    11. Cadot, Olivier & Fernandes, Ana M. & Gourdon, Julien & Mattoo, Aaditya, 2015. "Are the benefits of export support durable? Evidence from Tunisia," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 310-324.
    12. Jaime DE MELO & Marcelo OLARREAGA, 2017. "Trade Related Institutions and Development," Working Papers P199, FERDI.
    13. Mauro Boffa & Jaime de Melo, 2018. "Challenges ahead for Trade Promotion Organizations in Africa," Post-Print hal-01877252, HAL.
    14. Broocks, Annette & Van Biesebroeck, Johannes, 2017. "The impact of export promotion on export market entry," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 19-33.
    15. Tristan Reed, 2024. "Export-Led Industrial Policy for Developing Countries : Is There a Way to Pick Winners?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10902, The World Bank.
    16. Srhoj, Stjepan & Walde, Janette, 2020. "Getting ready for EU Single Market: The effect of export-oriented grant schemes on firm performance," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 279-293.
    17. Philipp Barteska & Jay Euijung Lee, 2025. "Personnel is policy (implementation): Bureaucrats and the Korean export miracle," CEP Discussion Papers dp2099, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    18. Olarreaga, Marcelo & Ugarte, Cristian, 2020. "Can export promotion reduce unemployment?," CEPR Discussion Papers 15049, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Priit Tinits & Carl F. Fey, 2022. "The Effects of Timing and Order of Government Support Mechanisms for SME Exports," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 62(2), pages 285-323, April.
    20. Maximiliano Marzetti & Rok Spruk, 2023. "Long-Term Economic Effects of Populist Legal Reforms: Evidence from Argentina," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 65(1), pages 60-95, March.

    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:11136. 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.