Political motives, geography, and the uneven distribution of gains trumped the traditional efficiency gains across Africa’s Regional Economic Communities (RECs). The small, sparsely populated, fragmented, and often isolated economies across Africa make a compelling case for these economies to...

The “distance effect” measuring the elasticity of trade flows to distance has been found to be rising since the early 1970s in a host of studies based on the gravity model, leading observers to call it the “distance puzzle”. However, this puzzle is regularly challenged by new...

This paper revisits the celebrated conflict that lasted close to two decades and pitted the EU against the US and against MFN suppliers of bananas. It starts by recalling the major turning points in the dispute and argues that the EU-US conflict could largely be explained by the changing...

Using an “event analysis”, this paper complements the cross-country approach to the study of fiscal correlates of growth. Data on fiscal expenditures and growth for a database of 140 countries (118 developing countries) over 1972-2005 are reorganized around turning points providing a summary...

Rwanda has made much progress towards integrating into the world economy, with yearly export growth rates close to 20%. However, largely because of being landlocked, Rwanda is still isolated from many trading partners and, because of the low share of trade in GDP, exports do not contribute much...

In spite of improved performance during the last decade, the MENA region has had a disappointing performance compared to other middle income countries. The paper surveys underlying causes by constructing micro and macro indicators and comparing performance with other countries. Lower growth and...

The paper surveys the state of knowledge about the trade-related environmental consequences of a country’s development strategy along three channels: (i) direct trade-environment linkages (overexploitation of natural resources and trade-related transport costs);(ii) ’virtual trade’ in...

In spite of improved performance during the last decade, the MENA region has had a disappointing performance compared to other middle income countries. The paper surveys underlying causes by constructing micro and macro indicators and comparing performance with other countries. Lower growth and...

The birth of a middle class across the continent gives room for expanding regional trade in ECOWAS. However, as a first step, commitments under the Ecowas Trade Liberalization Strategy (ETLS) should be carried out. Implementation of the ETLS is a prerequisite for raising the low levels of...

This paper revisits the celebrated conflict that lasted close to two decades and pitted the EU against the US and against MFN suppliers of bananas. It starts by recalling the major turning points in the dispute and argues that the EU-US conflict could largely be explained by the changing...