With further declines in international assistance expected over the coming years, the government of Afghanistan faces a new challenge of enabling new growth drivers. One such driver is trade. Decades of civil war and military occupation that culminated in the fall of the Taliban in 2001, have...

Evidence suggests that Pakistan has the potential for much faster and more diversified economic growth. Energizing trade can help Pakistan to realize its growth potential. Pakistan's inward-oriented trade policies have had the effect of stalling Pakistan's integration into regional and global...

We revisit the association between trade and GDP co-movement for 135 countries from 1970 to 2009. Guided by a simple theory, we introduce two notions of trade linkages: (i) the usual direct bilateral trade index and (ii) new indexes of common exposure to third countries capturing the role of...

This paper revisits the relationship between trade and cross-country GDP correlation for 134 countries from 1970 to 2009. We introduce two notions of trade linkages: (i) direct bilateral trade index and (ii) common exposure to "third" countries capturing the role of trade networks . Both are...

We revisit the association between trade and GDP comovement for 135 countries from 1970 to 2009. Guided by a simple theory, we introduce two notions of trade linkages: (i) the usual direct bilateral trade index and (ii) new indexes of common exposure to third countries capturing the role of...

Since the publication of their 2021 "Blue Book", the UK's Office for National Statistics started to measure real GDP in the national accounts using double deflation. This methodological update follows the premise that "double deflation is internationally accepted as the best approach to...