While there is considerable empirical evidence on the impact of liberalizing trade in goods, the effects of services liberalization have not been empirically established. This study examines the link between services sector reforms and the productivity of manufacturing industries relying on...

The paper investigates whether scale effects, market structure, and regulation determine the poor productivity performance of the European business services industry. We apply parametric and nonparametric methods to estimate the productivity frontier and subsequently explain the distance of...

In view of the risk of a slowdown in potential growth and the already extensive implementation of monetary and fiscal stabilisation policies following the financial crisis, the structural policies that are likely to boost growth are at the heart of economic policy debates.

Conventional explanations for the post-1991 growth of India’s manufacturing sector focus on goods trade liberalization and industrial de-licensing. We demonstrate the powerful contribution of a neglected factor: India’s policy reforms in services. The link between these reforms and the...

This paper analyzes the determinants of labor productivity in the services firms of Colombia. In particular, we examine the relation between information and communication technologies –ICT– (in terms of investment and use) and productivity. The study finds that ICT investment and use jointly...

Over the past decade, the growth potential of the Hungarian economy has declined substantially. Trend productivity has ceased to increase, and investment has fallen to historically low levels. To an important extent, the explanation lies in a business environment characterised by high...

This paper analyzes the evolution of fear of floating (FOF) and its effect on output in Chile, Colombia and Mexico. It shows that there has been a gradual rise in exchange-rate volatility as the period of floating lengthens in each country. The paper anal

Chile’s average per capita GDP growth of 4.1% during 991-2005 was significantly higher than average world growth during the same period and was a strong break from its own past. How much of Chile’s recent growth is trend growth and how much is cyclical, i

This paper exposes an analysis of the structural changes experienced by the demand of waged workers in Colombia during the 1990’s due to both, structural adjustment policies and the economic crisis that arose since 1998. The cointegration vectors’ methodology is deployed in order to obtain...

What are the determinants of economic reform efforts? This paper tries to throw light on this question by examining recent reforms in Brazil, a country which followed a gradualist approach and was a late-starter among Latin American economies. We argue that these first generation reforms (trade...