Harms, Mattoo, and Schuknecht examine the determinants of market access commitments in international financial services trade in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Based on a theoretical model, they investigate empirically the role of domestic political economy forces,...

Financial services negotiations through the World Trade Organization have helped many developing and transition economies develop more stable and transparent policy regimes, and their commitments in no way compromise their ability to pursue sound macroeconomic and regulatory policies. But the...

This paper focuses on the sluggish growth of world trade relative to income growth in recent years. We use a simple empirical strategy based on an error correction model to assess whether the global trade slowdown is structural or cyclical. An estimate of the relationship between trade and...

There is limited trade in health services despite big differences in the price of health care across countries. Whether patients travel abroad for health care depends on the coverage of treatments by their health insurance plan. Under existing health insurance contracts, the gains from trade are...

This paper elaborates on a number of key principles that need to underpin a coherent and development-friendly architecture for the WTO. The key principles include enlarging the scope of WTO bargaining to include labor flows as well as capital flows; creating a structure that would provide a...

This paper estimates the effect of China's exchange rate changes on exports of developing countries in third markets. The degree of competition between China and its developing country competitors in specific products and destinations plays a key role in the identification strategy. The strategy...

This paper documents an unusual and possibly significant phenomenon: the export of skills, embodied in goods, services or capital from poorer to richer countries. A set of stylized facts is presented. Using a measure which combines the sophistication of a country’s exports with the...

Elle a pour but de donner des informations de base aux Membres de l'OMC qui sont en train de définir la ligne de conduite à adopter face à cette nouvelle forme d'échanges. Rédigée par une équipe d'économistes du Secrétariat de l'OMC, elle décrit la complexité ainsi que les avantages...