This article empirically analyzes the role of finance in economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa from the perspective of what is termed herein “financial permeation”. By estimating panel data on 37 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa between 2004 and 2010, we examine whether financial permeation...

LDCs' trade patterns changed in the past decade, thanks to the rebalancing of global demand towards large emerging countries and the resulting cycle of high international commodity prices. This process led to a wider geographical diversification of LDCs' exports but contributed also to a greater...

This paper evaluates whether the proposed FTAAP is a desirable policy option for APEC member economies and the world economy. More specifically, this paper quantitatively investigates whether the FTAAP satisfies conditions for a trade bloc to generate positive and sufficient net trade creation...

This paper studies nonmarket institutions that facilitate exports. In Malawi, as in many other developing countries, farmers face numerous constraints that disconnect them from export markets. We explore the role of a local institution, the burley tobacco clubs, in bridging smallholders to...

This paper uses a new methodology to provide some first evidence on the overall level of trade costs in APEC and ASEAN. On average, APEC member economies have met the Shanghai target of a 5% reduction in trade costs over five years, but only just. Performance of individual member economies...

The expansion of regional economic cooperation was one of the major developments in the world political economy after the Second World War. Factors that thrust countries closer were both economic and political but economic factors prevailed; the classic example was the EU and ASEAN where economic...

This paper develops a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model incorporating trade facilitation aspects. This paper’s contributions are twofold: theoretical and empirical. First, this paper attempts to model trade facilitation explicitly in a dynamic CGE model applied. On the...

This study outlines the role of trade facilitation in Pakistan for economic corridors in South Asia. We study the current state of trade related infrastructure in Pakistan and its connectedness particularly with Afghanistan and India. The implications of recently initiated Afghanistan –...

There is a large body of research that explores international trade as a source of the dispersion in income levels and growth performances across countries. The trade liberalization policies undertaken between 1950 and 2006 led to an almost 30 fold growth in the volume of international trade....

This paper uses data on 11 industries in 85 developing countries to show that trade times matter for import and export performance at the firm-level. Firms import more intermediate inputs if import licensing times are shorter. They export more of their production if border clearance times are...