Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test the export-led growth hypothesis for South Asia, a diverse region consisting of one large country, India, surrounded by a number of medium and small countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives....

Time-series work on trade policy and growth is handicapped by the difficulty of measuring 'trade policy'. Established definitions of trade orientation such as 'bias' or the 'effective rate of protection' are difficult to operationalise in a time-series context because of enormous data...