We examine the interaction between goods trade and market power in domestic trade and distribution sectors. Theory suggests a set of linkages between service-sector competition and goods trade supported by econometrics involving imports of 22 OECD countries vis-à-vis 69 exporters. Competition...

The relationship between trade liberalisation and informal activity has not received the attention, whether theoretical or empirical, that it may deserve. The conventional view poses that trade liberalisation would cause a rise in informality. This paper uses three different data sets to assess...

We introduce an index of trade policy restrictiveness defined as the uniform tariff which maintains the same trade volume as a given tariff/quota structure. Our index overcomes the problems of the trade-weighted average tariff - it avoids substitution bias, correctly accounts for general...

This paper explores the links between international trade theory and the practice of trade and industrial policy in open economies, with special attention to three areas where theoretical lessons have been misunderstood in policy debates. It argues that the ‘concertina rule’ for tariff...

Australia’s external trade is relatively low compared with the size of its economy. Indeed, Australia’s openness ratio (exports plus imports as a proportion of GDP) in 2002 was the third-lowest among the 30 OECD countries. This paper seeks to understand Australia’s low openness by...

What are the ways in which trade (trade liberalisation) may have impact on poverty? This paper looks at some of the findings of the analytical literature on trade-poverty linkages that operate through the impact of trade on income distribution, and through the impact of trade on economic growth....

This paper explores the heterogeneous productivity impact of trade, product market and financial market policies over the last decade in China. The paper makes a critical distinction between downstream and upstream industries, focusing on the indirect effects of regulation in upstream industries...

The work seeks to answer two questions. First, if the removal of trade barriers is in each countries own interest, why are negotiations based on the principle of reciprocity? Second, if the political economy case for reciprocity is so compelling, then why have so many countries recently embarked...

The work seeks to answer two questions. First, if the removal of trade barriers is in each countries own interest, why are negotiations based on the principle of reciprocity? Second, if the political economy case for reciprocity is so compelling, then why have so many countries recently embarked...

We use a new dataset of de jure measures of trade, capital account, product market and domestic financial regulation for 91 countries from 1973 to 2005 to test Rajan and Zingales’s (2003) interest group theory of financial development. In line with the theory, we find strong evidence that...