of openness on poverty in two components: the effect of openness on average income growth, and the effect on distribution … of growth and poverty reduction. Trade openness has important positive spillovers on other aspects of reform, however, so …This survey of the recent literature asks: how important is trade policy for poverty reduction? We consider the effects …

We identify structural breaks in economic growth in 140 countries and use these to define ""growth spells:"" periods of … high growth preceded by an upbreak and ending either with a downbreak or with the end of the sample. Growth spells tend to … be shorter in African and Latin American countries than elsewhere. We find that growth duration is positively related to …

and capital account liberalization seem to increase both growth and inequality, as do some measures of liberalization of … entail no growth-equity tradeoff-such reforms are good for growth and do not worsen inequality. The results for our index of … the growth gains from the reforms themselves? While higher inequality does dampen the growth benefits, the net effect on …

There is good reason and much evidence to suggest that the real exchange rate matters for economic growth, but why? The … bad for growth. In contrast, Rodrik (2008) argues that undervaluation relative to purchasing power parity is good for … growth because it promotes the otherwise inefficiently small tradable sector. Our main result is that WC and the Rodrik views …