This paper reviews Nigeria’s non-oil export performance during the period 1970-90, analyzes the factors underlying the dismal performance, and estimates the supply-price elasticity of the exports for both the short and long run. A distinguishing feature of the analysis is the incorporation of...

Widespread shortages in key inputs are common in mixed economies of developing countries. These shortages appear to occur at the same time that relatively high rates of capacity underutilization in manufacturing industries are observed. This paper develops a simple model which explains the...

This paper analyzes the impact of political instability in Côte d’Ivoire on WAEMU trade over 1990-2007, applying panel econometric techniques to a gravity model of trade within WAEMU and between WAEMU and the rest of the world. The paper finds that intra-regional trade represents a small...

This survey of the recent literature asks: how important is trade policy for poverty reduction? We consider the effects of openness on poverty in two components: the effect of openness on average income growth, and the effect on distribution for a given growth rate. Evidence from a variety of...

This paper examines the impact of rising trade and financial integration on international business cycle comovement among a large group of industrial and developing countries. The results provide at best limited support for the conventional wisdom that globalization has increased the degree of...

This paper examines the relationship between fixed exchange rate arrangements and trade using a gravity model of international trade together with bilateral trade data from 24 countries from the Caribbean and Latin America for the period 1960-2001. The analysis indicates that a credible fixed...

This paper assesses the effect of constrained trade finance on trade flows in countries undergoing financial and balance of payments crises. Most of the countries that had a major crisis had a significant trade contraction, while trade-related finance declined sharply. However, trade may also be...

China''s increasing integration with the global economy has contributed to sustained growth in international trade. Its exports have become more diversified, and greater penetration of industrial country markets has been accompanied by a surge in China''s imports from all regions-especially...

Since the early 1990s, many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have made significant progress in opening their economies to external competition through trade and currency liberalization. This paper analyzes trade and policy developments for 22 countries in eastern and southern Africa, looks at...

This paper examines the consequences of heightened capital mobility and of the integration of developing economies in increasingly globalized markets for the exchange rate regimes of the industrial, developing, and transition economies. It builds upon previous studies by IMF staff on various...