According to the Washington Consensus, developing countries' growth would benefit from reductions in barriers to trade. However, the empirical basis for judging trade reforms is weak. Econometrics are mostly ad hoc; results are typically not judged against models; policies are poorly measured; and...

Trade liberalization leads to significant changes in countries' economic structures. The implied variation in the level and nature of specialization has important consequences for liberalizing economies. It is therefore extremely relevant for those countries pursuing trade liberalization...

This paper maps out Rules of Origin (RoO) in regional trade agreements (RTAs) around the world, and observes that the restrictiveness and complexity of RoO are driven by factors specific to each RTA, including economy size and level of development. Given the powerful political economy forces...