Export Response to the Reduction of Anti-Export Bias: Empirics from Bangladesh

The paper assesses the relationship between export growth of Bangladesh and trade liberalisation, the latter being proxied by the reduction of anti-export bias. In the empirical analysis, separate supply equations for total exports, (total) manufacturing exports, and textiles and readymade garment exports have been undertaken using quarterly time series data. The empirical results, based on vector error correction modelling (VECM), show that trade liberalisation has both long run and contemporaneous effects on total exports, manufacturing exports, and textiles and readymade garment exports supply. Besides, domestic price, export price, anti-export bias reduction, the degree of openness and production capacity all have either unidirectional or bi-directional causality between them.