Services play a key role in enhancing competitiveness of manufacturing and establishing global value chains. Realising the importance of services, a number of countries such as China, Taiwan, Philippines and United Arab Emirates (UAE, Dubai) are focusing on special economic zones (SEZs) for...

This paper studies firms' decisions to export and invest in R&D and their effects on employment growth and labor flows for a sample of Italian SMEs operating in the manufacturing industry. After accounting for the under-reporting of R&D in SMEs, our quantile regressions reveal that (i) R&D is...

India and Pakistan are the leading textile trading nations in the world. Among the major sectors, the textile and clothing sector accounts for the largest share in trade between India and Pakistan chiefly because of the similarities in culture and the importance of the sector in their economies....

Developments in international markets in recent years have transformed guar from a low value crop grown on marginal land to one that can generate substantial income for processors, manufacturers, traders and farmers. India's export of guar products, particularly guar gum powder, increased...

We use transaction-level data to study changes in the concentration of US imports. Concentration has fallen in the typical industry, while it is stable by industry and country of origin. The fall in concentration is driven by the extensive margin: the number of exporting firm has grown, and the...

The rising trade in intermediate goods accounts for almost two-thirds of world’s trade (MGI, 2019). India's export share for intermediate goods in its total exports has increased from 31.18% in 2011 to 32.52% in 2016. Moreover, India's overall share in world merchandise exports has itself...

In September 2008, the EU replaced national-level regulation on Maximum Residue Levels (MRLs) in pesticides with harmonized Community-wide regulation. Using data on pesticide MRLs for 53 trading partners over 2005-2014, we examine the effects of this harmonization on both intra- and extra-EU...

The empirical literature points the financial intermediation, measured by the level of credits relative to GDP in the economy, as one of the factors which affects the current account dynamics in a given country. This paper tries to estimate and then quantify the possible impact that household...

India's merchandise trade has been growing in importance in recent years with increases in share in world exports and imports (Economic Survey, 2013-14). However with fragmentation of production process across countries, higher exports can no longer be linked to higher production as imports of...

This paper attempts to evaluate the possible gains and losses arising from the gradual opening up of pharmaceutical trade between India and Pakistan. We explain the comparative advantages of both countries at a disaggregated level, followed by a qualitative analysis of various perceptions and...