Standard theory says that a country's welfare is unaffected by being excluded from a small regional trade agreement. But for most products,"small"countries and regional trade agreements do have some measure of market power. Such market power can arise if (1) supply is geographically concentrated;...

How tightly are trade negotiators held to winning a dollar of concession for each dollar of concession granted? The outcome of the Uruguay Round tariff negotiations suggests that such constraints were not tight. None of the delegations interviewed by the authors had tried to calculate for...

The author investigates the links between trade policy and economic growth using data from a panel of 57 countries from 1970-89. This is the first attempt to empirically evaluate, in a cross-country context, the respective roles of various theories of dynamic gains from trade in explaining the...

The author examines the relationship between trade policies and macroeconomic adjustment in six Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico. For the period 1965-94, the six countries experienced 26 trade policy episodes: 11 tightening, and 15 loosening of...

Developing countries experienced a revolution in trade policy in the 1980s and 1990s, but it is unclear how much real openness increased. After all, they had started with multiple, often redundant, trade restrictions. And it is unclear how changes in openness should be measured. The most...

In 1986 Vietnam initiated a transition from a centrally planned economy to a market-oriented economy where the government would keep playing a leading role. These renovation (doi moi) policies were successful at generating economic growth and reducing poverty. In the ten-year socioeconomic...

The author analyzes current trade policies and challenges faced by the transition economies - especially countries in the former soviet Union - as they are integrated into the world trading system. With few exceptions, transition economies in Central and Eastern Europe, including the Baltics,...

Every major regional trade agreement now has a services dimension. Is trade in services so different that there is need to modify the conclusions on preferential agreements pertaining to goods reached so far? The authors first examine the implications of unilateral policy choices in a particular...

Despite recurring rounds of trade liberalization, under the auspices of the World Trade Organization (and its predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, or GATT). Complemented by unilateral reforms, many developing countries have not been able to integrate into the world economy....

Some economists have argued that the process of disintegration of the world economy between the two world wars led to income divergence between the countries. This is in keeping with the view that economic integration leads to income convergence. The paper shows that the view that the period...