The paper reviews the evidence of the impact of trade liberalisation on the economic performance of poor developing countries with respect to trade and the balance of payments, economic growth, poverty reduction, the distribution of income within countries, and the distribution of income between...

A growing body of research suggests that democracy promotes trade liberalization in developing countries. We argue that democracy in developing countries generates a "skill bias" in trade policy where democratic incumbents have incentives to increase tariffs on high skilled goods but reduce...

Developing countries have been facing substantial adjustment costs in their endeavor in implementing trade reform. To lessen the adjustment costs of trade reform and to diffuse political support for protection a uniform tariff policy has often been recommended. The present paper examines the...

The use of computable general equilibrium (CGE) simulation models for policy analysis has become widespread. However, such techniques are not well suited to economywide analysis in developing countries. Instead, simulation models relying on "borrowed" parameter estimates have been used for a...

This paper focuses on three unresolved issues with regard to the impact of trade reform. First, many studies linking trade reform to long run growth are surprisingly fragile. To illustrate the problems with this literature, we examine a popular measure of openness recently introduced by Sachs...

Modern policy-oriented analysis of trade issues in developed countries focuses mainly on five sets of questions. This chapter discusses the differences in the levels of protection among industries. The industry and economy wide effects of trade liberalization on economic welfare, trade, output,...

Trade policies in developing countries have been a focal point of analysis for international economists in the past several decades. A desire for rapid economic growth in developing countries raised many questions about the relationship between trade and growth. This chapter discusses that the...

The objective of the paper is to explore and give an overview of two central policy alternatives to improve the integration between the European Union and developing countries by removing barriers to trade: trade preferences and trade facilitation. After reviewing the relevant literatures and...