This study examines the trade flows in commodities for CARICOM countries through the utilization of the traditional gravity model for international trade. Per capita GDP differential, trade to GDP and language all impact trade positively. On the other hand, geographical distance, exchange rate...

This article presents, through gravity models and a correct definition of what is understood by lost opportunities, an analysis of aggregate trade flows aimed at identifying China’s effects on Latin America’s trade. The results obtained indicate that it is not possible to talk about lost...

This paper studies the importance of intangible barriers to trade in explaining variation in disaggregate international trade. The analysis is based on a sample of 55 countries for the year 2000. We explicitly focus on the importance of institutional and cultural dimensions of distance. Our...

This study provides a decomposition of the WTO Global Trade Costs Index into five policy-relevant components: transport and travel costs; information and transaction costs; ICT connectedness; trade policy and regulatorydifferences; and governance quality. The WTO Global Trade CostsIndex is based...

After the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) many countries in the region radically liberalized their foreign trade regimes in the 1990s. In particular preferential trade liberalization in the CEE countries has been promoted by the European Union in the form of the...

Information disclosure is a common regulatory tool designed to influence business behavior. A belief is that transparency can provoke learning and also positive institutional change by empowering private watchdogs to monitor and pressure business leaders to alter harmful behavior. Beginning in...

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in the recent Health Services decision that the Canadian Constitutional protection of "freedom of association" should be interpreted to provide "at least as much protection" of associational rights as provided by ILO Convention 87, as interpreted by the ILO's...

Desde 1996 em sucessivas edições anuais, o Informe MERCOSUL vem acompanhando os aspectos mais importantes do desenvolvimento econômico e comercial desta entidade regional, criada pelo Tratado de Assunção, de 1991. O trabalho aqui apresentado se inscreve em um âmbito mais amplo das...

After satisfactory performance of the transition countries in 2000, their growth slowed down in 2001 as the external conditions deteriorated. This tendency was checked in the second half of 2002. Industrial production and exports have generally strengthened since then - though in some countries...