Legal systems provide the basic institutions for firms and markets to operate. Their quality can have important consequences on the size distribution of firms, who rely on them for contract enforcement. This paper uses the variation in legal system quality across states in Mexico to examine the...

This paper aims at quantifying the macroeconomic and distributional impacts of product market reforms and additional public investment using a DSGE model. The model reflects specific features of the South African economy. Tradable and non-tradable product markets are modelled separately, and a...

What policy reforms are most urgently needed to remove obstacles to output and employment growth in service sectors and to enhance economies’ ability to adjust to structural change as a result of changing trade patterns? This paper reviews the impact of the structural policy framework...

This paper assesses the importance of border and non-border policies for global economic integration. The focus is on four widely-advocated policies: removing explicit restrictions to trade and FDI; promoting domestic competition; improving the adaptability of labour markets; and ensuring...

After a recession of historic proportions, an export-led recovery is gaining traction in Ireland. The pace of recovery, however, varies sharply across sectors. While export-oriented manufacturing and services, led by large multinationals, have reached record-high levels of output,...

As Brazil is significantly less integrated into international trade than other emerging market economies, opening up to trade has significant potential to create jobs that are more productive and better paid. At the same time, this will be associated with structural changes and adjustment costs....

International trade has supported economic convergence and poverty reductions in many emerging market economies. Nonetheless, there are significant challenges during the transition towards a more open economy. Reallocations of resources and structural change are one key source of aggregate...

While the single market has largely been achieved for the EU market for goods, the services sector has lagged behind. This has resulted in sluggish activity, low productivity growth, high prices, that show a wide dispersion and relatively high inflation in this sector. Both the OECD product...

What policy reforms are most urgently needed to remove obstacles to output and employment growth in service sectors and to enhance economies’ ability to adjust to structural change as a result of changing trade patterns? This paper reviews the impact of the structural policy framework...

This paper reviews some of the possible changes that may occur in the national labour markets of many OECD countries as a result of international trade and the internationalisation of production by multinational companies, with a particular focus on the impact of outward foreign direct...