Globalisation is already a powerful force for poverty reduction as societies and economies around the world are becoming more integrated. Although this international integration presents considerable opportunities for developing countries, it also contains significant risks. Associated with...

"The authors determine how time delays affect international trade using newly collected World Bank data on the days it takes to move standard cargo from the factory gate to the ship in 126 countries. They estimate a modified gravity equation, controlling for endogeneity and remoteness. On...

"The authors analyze the relationship between international trade and the quality of economic institutions such as contract enforcement, rule of law, or property rights. The literature on institutions has argued, both empirically and theoretically, that larger firms care less about good...

Kenya's economy has been running on one engine. Kenya's strong engine is domestic consumption, which accounts for 75 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Kenya's weak engine remains its exports, which have been declining sharply in relative importance. Kenya's top four main exports do not...

This report evaluates the role, operational models and identifies good practices of programs that seek to accelerate innovative entrepreneurship by managing, nurturing and leveraging social and business networks. The report discusses the role of venture acceleration networks, using networks to...

"Product standards can have a dual impact on production and trade costs. Standards may impose additional costs on exporters as it may be necessary to adapt products for specific markets (cost-effect). In contrast, standards can reduce exporters' information costs if they convey information on...

"This paper examines the effect of regionalism on unilateral trade liberalization using industry-level data on applied most-favored nation tariffs and bilateral preferences for ten Latin American countries from 1990 to 2001. The findings show that preferential tariff reduction in a given sector...

"Regional agreements on standards have been largely ignored by economists and unconditionally blessed by multilateral trade rules. Chen and Mattoo find, theoretically and empirically, that such agreements increase trade between participating countries but not necessarily with the rest of the...