We examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Kenya's foreign trade using quarterly trade data for the period 2019 to the second quarter of 2021. The exploratory analysis shows that growth of Kenya's merchandise exports remained resilient, largely supported by traditional exports of tea and...

The pre-eminence of trade and investment in the economic prosperity of developed and developing countries cannot be overemphasized. Many studies have shown a strong positive impact of trade on economic growth across developed and the emerging market. However, very little is known about the...

We examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Kenya's foreign trade using quarterly trade data for the period 2019 to the second quarter of 2021. The exploratory analysis shows that growth of Kenya's merchandise exports remained resilient, largely supported by traditional exports of tea and...

The pre-eminence of trade and investment in the economic prosperity of developed and developing countries cannot be overemphasized. Many studies have shown a strong positive impact of trade on economic growth across developed and the emerging market. However, very little is known about the...

Countries embarking on trade negotiations are not only seeking increased market access, but also, reduced market opacity. This study distils the most progressive practices for promoting regulatory transparency in over one hundred regional trade agreements (RTAs) concluded by OECD and large...

What influences the adoption of transparency obligations in trade agreements, and what are its effects? This paper uses a new dataset on transparency provisions in over a hundred regional trade agreements (RTAs) to provide empirical evidence of the political economy determinants of international...

This paper takes a careful look at a recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) Working Paper that claims to find significant gains for liberalization of trade through the World Trade Organization. It is not clear that the reported gains are at all large. The IMF paper shows that multilateral...

The Doha Round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations has been ongoing for 10 years, and given political cycles in major countries, there is not much hope for a rapid conclusion. The topics on the table are important, and in principle there is enough substance for all countries to...

Following the onset of the financial crisis in September 2008 and the subsequent “Great Trade Collapse” (Baldwin 2009), many countries actively used trade policy instruments as part of their response to the global recession. Governments pursued a mix of trade liberalization, trade promotion,...

Debates over economic policy tend to be enormously confused. It is often the case that even high-level officials and well-known economists seem ignorant of basic accounting identities. This leads them to make claims that literally do not add up. This seems to be especially common in the case of...