This paper uses a disaggregated (product-level) gravity approach to estimate the effect of ASEAN’s product-specific rules of origin (RoO) on regional trade, using original data on rules applicable at the six-digit level of the harmonized system. Overall, we find that the average ad-valorem...

Reforming business licensing is a key starting point for improving the investment climate. Complex licensing procedures may encourage firms to remain unregistered, giving rise to difficulties later in accessing finance from formal financial institutions and constraining productivity and...

We construct an index of NTM transparency based on notifications to the WTO under the SPS and TBT agreements, the existence of a trade portal giving ready access to trade-relevant regulations, the existence of NTM data collected under the MAST classification, and the results of an experiment...

IntroductionAfter close to 70 years of trade liberalization, a series of recent events suggests that the tide may well be turning. International trade as a proportion of global gross domestic product (GDP) has stopped growing in the last decade, in what Constantinescu et al. (2015) dub the...

To obtain country specific estimates of ad-valorem equivalent (AVE) of Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs), we propose a a new that relies on the estimation of bilateral trade flows on two-way panels (product X importer X exporter) at the HS 2-digit level with importer, exporter and product fixed effects...

There are several mechanisms that can account for short-run business cycle transmission. International trade is probably the major vehicle, and it forms a direct channel through which income and price shocks may be transmitted. Capital flows provide a second mechanism which is most likely to be...