This paper provides an empirical investigation of the medium-term determinants of current accounts for a large sample of industrial and developing countries. The analysis is based on a structural approach that highlights the roles of the fundamental macroeconomic determinants of saving and...

The decade from 1985 to 1995 was an unprecedented period of declining barriers to global trade. The reform wave was especially pronounced in developing countries where overvalued currencies were eliminated, quantitative import restrictions dismantled, and import tariffs reduced. What accounts...

The development process can advance more rapidly than ever before in the new global economy. While opening their economies to trade and investment is a necessary condition for developing countries to achieve sustained high growth and reduce poverty, it is by no means a sufficient condition....

The multilateral trading system has delivered successive rounds of trade liberalisation and established mechanisms to protect the interests of trading nations. The result has been growth for those nations that have recognised the importance of openness and established a domestic policy framework...

As trade barriers at the border have fallen through successive trade negotiations, domestic regulation has emerged as a source of residual but potentially significant trade barriers. Recognising the importance of participating in intensified global competition, countries increasingly see...