Estimating Trade Restrictiveness Indices

Estimating Trade Restrictiveness Indices
Author: Hiau Looi Kee
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 36
Release: 2006
Genre:
ISBN:

The objective of this paper is to provide indicators of trade restrictiveness that include both measures of tariff and nontariff barriers for 91 developing and industrial countries. For each country, the authors estimate three trade restrictiveness indices. The first one summarizes the degree of trade distortions that each country imposes on itself through its own trade policies. The second one focuses on the trade distortions imposed by each country on its import bundle. The last index focuses on market access and summarizes the trade distortions imposed by the rest of the world on each country's export bundle. All indices are estimated for the broad aggregates of manufacturing and agriculture products. Results suggest that poor countries (and those with the highest poverty headcount) tend to be more restrictive, but they also face the highest trade barriers on their export bundle. This is partly explained by the fact that agriculture protection is generally larger than manufacturing protection. Nontariff barriers contribute more than 70 percent on average to world protection, underlying their importance for any study on trade protection.

Estimating Trade Restrictiveness Indices

Estimating Trade Restrictiveness Indices
Author: Hiau Looi Kee
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 44
Release: 2006
Genre: Protectionism
ISBN:

The objective of this paper is to provide indicators of trade restrictiveness that include both measures of tariff and nontariff barriers for 91 developing and industrial countries. For each country, the authors estimate three trade restrictiveness indices. The first one summarizes the degree of trade distortions that each country imposes on itself through its own trade policies. The second one focuses on the trade distortions imposed by each country on its import bundle. The last index focuses on market access and summarizes the trade distortions imposed by the rest of the world on each country's export bundle. All indices are estimated for the broad aggregates of manufacturing and agriculture products. Results suggest that poor countries (and those with the highest poverty headcount) tend to be more restrictive, but they also face the highest trade barriers on their export bundle. This is partly explained by the fact that agriculture protection is generally larger than manufacturing protection. Nontariff barriers contribute more than 70 percent on average to world protection, underlying their importance for any study on trade protection.

Nontariff Measures and International Trade

Nontariff Measures and International Trade
Author: John Christopher Beghin
Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company
Total Pages: 393
Release: 2016-11-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9813144416

Nontariff Measures and International Trade includes 20 chapters authored by John Beghin and co-authors over the last 20 years on the economics of quality-standard like nontariff measures in the context of international trade. This book provides a coherent and comprehensive treatment of these nontariff measures, from their measurement to their effects on trade and welfare. In Part I, the authors use different perspectives to make the case that, unlike tariffs, quality-standard like nontariff measures are complex to measure and analyze and do not easily lead to general policy prescriptions. Then, Part II contains contributions on measurements of welfare and trade effects of nontariff measures, accounting for potential market imperfections. Part III presents chapters on the potential protectionism of nontariff measures when they are used to favor some economic agents over society. The last part presents cases studies of nontariff measures in different industries, markets, and countries.

A Practical Guide to Trade Policy Analysis

A Practical Guide to Trade Policy Analysis
Author: Marc Bacchetta
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9789287038128

Trade flows and trade policies need to be properly quantified to describe, compare, or follow the evolution of policies between sectors or countries or over time. This is essential to ensure that policy choices are made with an appropriate knowledge of the real conditions. This practical guide introduces the main techniques of trade and trade policy data analysis. It shows how to develop the main indexes used to analyze trade flows, tariff structures, and non-tariff measures. It presents the databases needed to construct these indexes as well as the challenges faced in collecting and processing these data, such as measurement errors or aggregation bias. Written by experts with practical experience in the field, A Practical Guide to Trade Policy Analysis has been developed to contribute to enhance developing countries' capacity to analyze and implement trade policy. It offers a hands-on introduction on how to estimate the distributional effects of trade policies on welfare, in particular on inequality and poverty. The guide is aimed at government experts engaged in trade negotiations, as well as students and researchers involved in trade-related study or research. An accompanying DVD contains data sets and program command files required for the exercises. Copublished by the WTO and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

A New Approach to Evaluating Trade Policy

A New Approach to Evaluating Trade Policy
Author: James E. Anderson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 48
Release: 1992
Genre: Commercial policy
ISBN:

Introducing something new: The Trade Restrictiveness Index measures the restrictiveness of a system of trade protection. This measure is both simple and consistent with economic theory.

Estimating Trade Restrictiveness Indices

Estimating Trade Restrictiveness Indices
Author: Hiau Looi Kee
Publisher:
Total Pages: 36
Release: 2016
Genre:
ISBN:

The objective of this paper is to provide indicators of trade restrictiveness that include both measures of tariff and nontariff barriers for 91 developing and industrial countries. For each country, the authors estimate three trade restrictiveness indices. The first one summarizes the degree of trade distortions that each country imposes on itself through its own trade policies. The second one focuses on the trade distortions imposed by each country on its import bundle. The last index focuses on market access and summarizes the trade distortions imposed by the rest of the world on each country`s export bundle. All indices are estimated for the broad aggregates of manufacturing and agriculture products. Results suggest that poor countries (and those with the highest poverty headcount) tend to be more restrictive, but they also face the highest trade barriers on their export bundle. This is partly explained by the fact that agriculture protection is generally larger than manufacturing protection. Nontariff barriers contribute more than 70 percent on average to world protection, underlying their importance for any study on trade protection.

Quantitative Methods for Assessing the Effects of Non-tariff Measures and Trade Facilitation

Quantitative Methods for Assessing the Effects of Non-tariff Measures and Trade Facilitation
Author: Philippa S. Dee
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 674
Release: 2005
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9812701354

As tariffs have fallen worldwide, the increasing importance of non-tariff policies for further trade liberalization has become widely recognized. The methods for assessing the potential effects of such liberalization have lagged significantly behind those available for analyzing tariffs. This book is the first volume that comprehensively addresses this gap. It has been designed to be useful for both economists and policymakers, especially for those involved in communicating ideas and results between economists and policymakers. This indispensable book contains cutting-edge discussions of the full range of methodologies used in this area, including business surveys, summary statistics such as effective rates of protection and price gaps, time-series and panel econometrics, and simulation methods such as computable general equilibrium. It covers the entire spectrum of policies under discussion in current trade negotiations, including trade facilitation, services policies, quantitative measures, customs procedures, standards, movement of natural persons, and anti-dumping. Some prominent contributors to this book are Bijit Bora (World Trade Organization), John Wilson, Tsunehiro Otsuki and Vlad Manole (World Bank), Catherine Mann (Institute of International Economics), Alan Deardorff and Robert Stern (University of Michigan), Joe Francois (Erasmus University), Dean Spinanger (University of Kiel), Antoni Estevadeordal and Kati Suominen (Inter-American Development Bank), Thomas Prusa (Rutgers University), Thomas Hertel and Terrie Walmsley (Purdue University), Scott Bradford (Brigham Young University), Judith Dean, Robert Feinberg, Soamiely Andriamananjara and Marinos Tsigas (US International Trade Commission).

Using R for Trade Policy Analysis

Using R for Trade Policy Analysis
Author: Massimiliano Porto
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 109
Release: 2020-02-18
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3030345297

This book explains the best practices of the UNCTAD & WTO for trade analysis to the R users community. It shows how to replicate the UNCTAD & WTO's Stata codes in the Practical Guide to Trade Policy Analysis by using R. Applications and exercises are chosen from the Practical Guide to Trade Policy Analysis and explain how to implement the codes in R. This books targets readers with a basic knowledge of R. It is particularly suitable for Stata users.

A Measurement of Aggregate Trade Restrictions and Their Economic Effects

A Measurement of Aggregate Trade Restrictions and Their Economic Effects
Author: Julia Estefania-Flores
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 65
Release: 2022-01-07
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1616359641

We develop a new Measure of Aggregate Trade Restrictions (MATR) using data from the IMF’s Annual Report on Exchange Arrangements and Exchange Restrictions. MATR is an empirical measure of how restrictive official government policy is towards the international flow of goods and services. MATR is simple, ad hoc, plausible, quantitative, easily updated, based solely on policy-relevant measures of trade policy, and covers an unbalanced sample of up to 157 countries annually between 1949 and 2019. MATR is strongly correlated with, but more comprehensive than, existing measures of openness and trade policy existing measures. We use MATR to show that trade restrictions are harmful for the economy and lead to significant contractions in output.

Handbook of Deep Trade Agreements

Handbook of Deep Trade Agreements
Author: Aaditya Mattoo
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 821
Release: 2020-09-23
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1464815542

Deep trade agreements (DTAs) cover not just trade but additional policy areas, such as international flows of investment and labor and the protection of intellectual property rights and the environment. Their goal is integration beyond trade or deep integration. These agreements matter for economic development. Their rules influence how countries (and hence, the people and firms that live and operate within them) transact, invest, work, and ultimately, develop. Trade and investment regimes determine the extent of economic integration, competition rules affect economic efficiency, intellectual property rights matter for innovation, and environmental and labor rules contribute to environmental and social outcomes. This Handbook provides the tools and data needed to analyze these new dimensions of integration and to assess the content and consequences of DTAs. The Handbook and the accompanying database are the result of collaboration between experts in different policy areas from academia and other international organizations, including the International Trade Centre (ITC), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and World Trade Organization (WTO).