We extend an open economy Ramsey model to include the technology gap to the world technology frontier. The setting is a middle income country with productivity growth driven by technology adoption and foreign capital goods stimulating spillover and catching up. The interaction of technology...

After nearly fifteen years of transition, the countries of Central Europe have entered the European Union on 1 May 2004. For the four countries that are members of the OECD (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovak Republic), accession follows multiyear efforts of economic stabilisation and...

Unlike in Asia, the manufacturing sector has not (yet) become a driver of structural change in Africa. One common explanation is that the natural resource-focus of many African economies leads to Dutch disease effects. To test this argument for the case of newly found oil in Ghana we develop a...

This paper examines whether, in the presence of trade preferences, Sub-Saharan African economies, and especially its poorest households, could gain from multilateral trade reform. The World Bank’s LINKAGE model of the global economy is employed to examine the impact first of current trade...

This paper presents descriptive evidence of specialisation trends and investigates empirically their causes and consequences, analysing the role of policies in this process. Then, based on the insights from the backward looking analysis, it draws global trade and specialisation scenarios up to...

The relationships between trade and growth have long been a subject of considerable controversy among economists. In the early post-World War II period, many economic leaders concluded that protective trade policies stimulated growth, and import substitution policies were widely adopted by...

This paper presents descriptive evidence of specialisation trends and investigates empirically their causes and consequences, analysing the role of policies in this process. Then, based on the insights from the backward looking analysis, it draws global trade and specialisation scenarios up to...

While Mexico’s growth performance has gradually improved over the past decades, its convergence toward OECD countries has been less rapid than in several other emerging markets. The recent significant reductions in import tariffs should help the economy take fuller advantage of trade and...

The relationships between trade and growth have long been a subject of considerable controversy among economists. In the early post-World War II period, many economic leaders concluded that protective trade policies stimulated growth, and import substitution policies were widely adopted by...