Overall, protection in goods and services now appears modest in developed and developing countries, but there are a number of products where protection remains high and liberalization could bring important benefits to developing countries. In absolute terms the greatest gains for developing...

According to Lucas (1981) understanding business cycles is the first step in designing appropriate stabilization policies. In this paper, we demonstrate a series of ways in which developing countries differ from their developed counterparts when focus is on the nature and characteristics of...

In the aftermath of the failed Third Ministerial Session of the WTO in Seattle, the WTO is trying to rebuild the agenda for a new round of multilateral trade negotiations. There are already mandated negotiations in agriculture and services (the so-called "built-in agenda") as well as mandated...

We investigate how urban concentration and urbanization affect economic growth in developing countries. Using semi-parametric estimation techniques on a cross-country panel of 39 countries for the years 1960-1990 we discover a U-shaped relationship for urban concentration. This suggests the...

Measures to support Competition Policy and enhance the efficiency of Public Procurement can enhance the impact of regional integration agreements. The first part addresses Competition Policy - measures employed by government to ensure a fair competitive market environment. Competition policy...