An important question that has continued to elude trade economists is why trade interventions are biased in favor of import-competing rather than exportable sectors. Indeed, as Philip Levy (1999) points out, under a set of neutrality assumptions, the dominant political-economy model, Grossman...

The electronics sector has played an important role in the development trajectories of several newly industrialized economies. South Asia’s lack of competitiveness reflects inadequate provision of public goods (e.g. industrial zones next to world class ports and urban centers) rather than high...

This report examines how Nepal could move away from a remittance-driven growth model by reforming its trade policies to increase competitiveness. It looks at the extent to which Nepal has been tapping into its trade potentials, the underlying obstacles that it faces, and the type of reforms that...

Policy commitment and credibility are important for inducing agents to make costly, irreversible investments. Policy uncertainty can delay investment and reduce the response to policy change. I provide theoretical and novel quantitative evidence for these effects by focusing on trade policy, a...

This paper considers the impact of preferential trade liberalization (PTL) on multilateral trade liberalization (MTL), focusing on the European Union. The model that we develop, which builds on Limão (2002), captures key features of the multilateral system and of recent PTAs and generates...

Most countries are members of preferential trade agreements (PTAs). The effect of these agreements has attracted much interest and raised the question of whether PTAs promote or slow multilateral trade liberalization, i.e., whether they are a "building block" or "stumbling block" to multilateral...