Firm-level data for the Czech Republic during 1992–6 suggest that foreign investment has tended to flow to firms of above average size, initial profitability and initial labour productivity. After controlling for this selection bias, we find that foreign investment has a positive, but...

This Paper focuses on policies facilitating firm adjustment to globalization. We briefly review the effects of trade and investment liberalization on firms, focusing on within- industry effects. We postulate that governments’ role in supporting the process is to: (i) ensure that firms face...

This paper investigates the relationship between firm restructuring and international competition in Bulgaria during 1991–4. Two hypotheses are tested. First, firms in industries that are subject to significant international competition demonstrate greater increases in efficiency over time...

The authors analyze the new Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) that was negotiated between a subset of General Agreement on Tariffs an Trade (GATT) members in the Uruguay Round, focusing especially on the expansion of coverage to services and on the strengthening of enforcement mechanisms....

In this paper, developed as part of the World Bank's Poverty Reduction Strategy Sourcebook, the authors examine how to implement trade liberalization as part of a strategy for alleviating poverty in developing countries. They discuss trade policy instruments, institutions, complementary...

In the first half of the 1990s exports to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries from many Central and Eastern European countries grew rapidly. The authors explore the extent that export growth reflects economic restructuring and changes in trade composition as...

The Uruguay Round will generally have a limited impact on Egyptian policies affecting goods, investment, and services. It will have a more significant impact on intellectual property, although this will take up to a decade to materialize fully. Insofar as this reflects a continuing defensiveness...

Until recently, trade in services was mostly ignored by iinternational economists, reflecting a perception that services were nontradable. This has never been true. Transportation and travel, for example, have always been important economic activities. In 1995, services trade climbed to a...

Because of concern that OECD tariff reductions will translate into worsening export performance for the least developed countries, trade preferences have proven a stumbling block to developing country support for multilateral liberalization. The authors examine the actual scope for preference...

This article assesses the impact of the world price--depressing effect of agricultural subsidies and border protection in <EM t="s">oecd</EM> countries on developing economies' exports, imports, and welfare. Developing economy exporters are likely to benefit from reductions in such subsidies and trade...</em>