There has been no single magic formula for the success of the East Asian transition economies (Cambodia, China, Lao People's Democratic Republic, and Vietnam), whose performance in export and income growth has been strikingly better than that of transition economies in Eastern Europe and the...

A survey of more than 50 empirical papers shows that the adjustment costs of trade liberalization are small relative to the benefits. Moreover, manufacturing employment typically increases with trade liberalization. The limited data suggests that trade liberalization reduces poverty