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The challenge of reducing international trade and migration barriers

Author

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  • Anderson, Kym
  • Winters, L. Alan

Abstract

While barriers to trade in most goods and some services including capital flows have been reduced considerably over the past two decades, many remain. Such policies harm most the economies imposing them, but the worst of the merchandise barriers (in agriculture and textiles) are particularly harmful to the world's poorest people, as are barriers to worker migration across borders. This paper focuses on how costly those anti-poor trade policies are, and examines possible strategies to reduce remaining distortions. Two opportunities in particular are addressed: completing the Doha Development Agenda process at the World Trade Organization (WTO), and freeing up the international movement of workers. A review of the economic benefits and adjustment costs associated with these opportunities provides the foundation to undertake benefit/cost analysis required to rank this set of opportunities against those aimed at addressing the world's other key challenges as part of the Copenhagen Consensus project. The paper concludes with key caveats and suggests that taking up these opportunities could generate huge social benefit/cost ratios that are considerably higher than the direct economic ones quantified in this study, even without factoring in their contribution to alleviating several of the other challenges identified by that project, including malnutrition, disease, poor education and air pollution.

Suggested Citation

  • Anderson, Kym & Winters, L. Alan, 2008. "The challenge of reducing international trade and migration barriers," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4598, The World Bank.
  • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4598
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    Cited by:

    1. Blanca Moreno-Dodson & Sanket Mohapatra & Dilip Ratha, 2012. "Migration, Taxation, and Inequality," World Bank Publications - Reports 10038, The World Bank Group.
    2. Edwards, T. Huw, 2010. "Globalisation as a 'good times' phenomenon: A search-based explanation," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 4, pages 1-48.
    3. Jacques Poot & Anna Strutt, 2010. "International Trade Agreements and International Migration," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(12), pages 1923-1954, December.
    4. Anthony Orji & Chukwuma Agu, 2018. "Analysis of Migration, Regional Characteristics, and Socioeconomic Outcomes in Developing Economies: Empirical Evidence from Nigeria," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 565-581, August.
    5. Ratha, Dilip & Mohapatra, Sanket & Scheja, Elina, 2011. "Impact of migration on economic and social development : a review of evidence and emerging issues," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5558, The World Bank.
    6. Dowlah Caf, 2012. "Mode 4 of WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services: Can it spur Cross-Border Labor Mobility from Developing Countries?," The Law and Development Review, De Gruyter, vol. 5(2), pages 56-82, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic Theory&Research; Environmental Economics&Policies; Emerging Markets; Free Trade; Trade Policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F02 - International Economics - - General - - - International Economic Order and Integration
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • F17 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Forecasting and Simulation

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