This paper examines the determinants of economic growth in developing countries within the standard growth regression framework, with special attention being paid to the experience of landlocked countries. The results confirm the findings of previous studies that landlockedness hampers economic...

From the 1950s to the early 1970s, Sri Lankan governments pursued controls on the financial sector and have further reduced controls since 1977. This article links those financial sector reforms (falling controls) and the financial sector performance of Sri Lanka by testing hypotheses estimating...

This study examines the role of foreign debt, trade openness and labor force in the economic growth of Sri Lanka, by employing the Johansen maximum likelihood approach of cointegration. It analyzes the data for the period, 1950-2006. The study finds that there is a cointegration relationship...

This paper revisits the institutional determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) using a comprehensive new data set on the regulations that govern FDI in more than 80 countries. It exploits the presence of confirmed zero investment flows between countries to estimate productivity cut-offs...

A revenue-neutral switch from trade taxes to domestic consumption taxes is fraught with implementation challenges in countries with a large informal sector. It is shown for a sample of low-income countries over 25 years that they have had a mixed record of offsetting reductions in trade tax...

Deeper regional integration can be beneficial especially for regions along international borders. It can open up new markets on opposite sides of borders and give consumers wider access to cheaper goods. This paper uses data from five contiguous districts of India, Nepal, and Bangladesh in the...

Trade has proven to be a powerful engine of growth worldwide. But not all countries have benefited equally. Despite much effort to use trade policy to catalyze exports, many developing countries have failed to achieve successful, sustainable export and economic growth. Even with the benefit of...

Nepal was the first Least Developed Country to negotiate its accession to the World Trade Organization. The negotiation process was demanding, yet it succeeded in securing a relatively well-balanced accession package. The purpose of this paper is to describe the contours of the negotiation...