Rapid trade liberalisation can exert profound effects on labour markets. Domestic firms, to sustain competitiveness for survival, could react through cutting labour benefits to achieve cost reductions. Alternatively, trade liberalisation may alter the industry composition of firms changing the aggregate formality rates. This paper studies the relationship between trade liberalisation and inform...

We extend the trade restrictiveness index approach to the case of market imperfections and domestic regulations addressing them. We focus on standard-like non-tariff measures (NTMs) affecting cost of production and potentially enhancing demand by increasing product quality or reducing negative externalities. We apply the framework to the database of Kee et al. (2009) and derive ad valorem equiv...

Illicit trade carries the potential to magnify existing tobacco-related health care costs through increased availability of untaxed and inexpensive cigarettes. What is known with respect to the magnitude of illicit trade for Vietnam is produced primarily by the industry, and methodologies are typically opaque. Independent assessment of the illicit cigarette trade in Vietnam is vital to tobacco ...

This paper presents estimates of the effects that terms of trade volatility has on real GDP per capita growth. Based on 5-year non-overlapping panel data comprising 175 countries during 1980-2010, the paper finds that terms of trade volatility has significant adverse effects on economic growth in countries with procyclical government spending; in countries where government spending is countercy...

There has been an unprecedented trade liberalization which started in the mid1980s in a wide spectrum of developing countries. In the same period, there have also been considerable changes in the tax structures of countries. This paper uses panel data on 65 countries, including 16 Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries, for the period 1980–1997 to examine how tax structures responded to ...

The increasing competitive pressures from both global and domestic markets are forcing nations to adopt new trade practices and standards. Nations need to adjust to new methods of trade information exchange, open up their telecommunications systems and learn to take full advantage of harmonized procedures, standards, and practices for trade documentation. The role of electronic commerce and ele...

More generally, globalization of trade in goods, services, and assets continues to move forward at an impressive pace, despite some indications of increased resistance to that process and the evident difficulties in completing the Doha Round. The volume of trade relative to world gross domestic product has been rising for decades, largely because of decreasing transportation costs and lowered t...

Introduction 1 I. The Importance of Internal and External Shocks 4 A. External Shocks: Uncertain Terms of Trade 4 B. External Shocks: Uncertain Access to and Cost of Foreign Capital 5 C. Internal Shocks: Uncertain Agricultural Output and Domestic Policy Shocks 10 D. Life is Uncertain! So What? 11 II. The Impact of Uncertainty on Production Commodity Trade 11 III. Trade in Goods and Risk-Free Bo...

The use of emissions trading (cap and trade) is gaining worldwide recognition as an extremely effective policy tool. The U.S. Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) Emissions Trading Program has achieved an unprecedented level of environmental protection in a cost-effective manner. The successful results of the program have led domestic and foreign governments to consider the application of cap and trade to addr...

We analyze the effects of free trade on environmental policies in a strategic setting with transboundary pollution. Trade liberalization can result in a race to the bottom in environmental outcomes, making both countries worse off. With command and control policies (quotas), there is no race to the bottom. However, with internationally tradable permits, unless pollution is a pure global public ...