China's entry into the World Trade Organization offers China a rare opportunity to advance its communications capabilities, but the government must recognize that protecting its favored domestic companies and funding antiquated technology won't allow the country to benefit from everything WTO...

State enterprises (SEs) have been increasingly competing with private firms in international markets, in terms of both cross-border trade and FDI. Given both the potentially positive contribution internationally trading and investing SEs can make, as well as the concerns raised about their...

It is argued that compared with large countries, small countries rely more on trade and therefore they are more likely to adopt liberal trading policies. The present paper extends this idea beyond the conventional trade openness measures by analyzing the relationship between country size and the...

It is argued that compared with large countries, small countries rely more on trade and therefore they are more likely to adopt liberal trading policies. The present paper extends this idea beyond the conventional trade openness measures by analyzing the relationship between country size and the...

An appropriately conceived and well-designed border climate adjustment scheme, as a policy mechanism potentially utilizable by many States party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, may lead to desirable consequences for the development of comprehensive global greenhouse...

This chapter surveys empirically the broad features of trade policy in goods for 31 major economies that collectively represented 83% of the world's population and 91% of the world's GDP in 2013. We address five questions: Do some countries have more liberal trading regimes than others? Within...

Since the early 2000s, there has been rapid growth in the number and spread of supermarkets in southern Africa. This paper is a synthesis of key findings of studies undertaken in Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe on the expansion of supermarkets and the impact this has had on...

Using proprietary data from Alibaba, we examine how the 2015 Food Safety Law (FSL) affects e-commerce in China. The FSL requires most food sellers on e-commerce platforms to obtain a valid online license for retail food handling. Because the FSL was rolled out progressively, we have a rare...

The first of both short essays deals with two structural constraints that distinguish services markets from e.g. markets for manufacturing products. The 'nearness restriction' requires that producer and consumer of the service product are present on the same location. The 'non-storability...

Auf der Grundlage von Fachgesprächen mit Unternehmerinnen und Unternehmern sowie Expertinnen und Experten untersucht die Studie, inwieweit bürokratische Erfordernisse die grenzüberschreitende Erbringung von Dienstleistungen von deutschen und niederländischen KMU in ausgewählten...