Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/14181.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Services Trade Policies and Economic Integration: New Evidence for Developing Countries

Author

Abstract
This paper provides the first quantitative evidence on the restrictiveness of services policies in 2016 for a sample of developing countries, based on recently released regulatory data collected by the World Bank and WTO. We use machine learning to recreate to a high degree of accuracy the OECD’s Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI), which takes account of nonlinearities and dependencies across measures. We use the resulting estimates to extend the OECD STRI approach to 23 additional countries, producing what we term a Services Policy Index (SPI). Converting the SPI to ad valorem equivalent terms shows that services policies are typically much more restrictive than tariffs on imports of goods, in particular in professional services and telecommunications. Developing countries tend to have higher services trade restrictions, but less so than has been found in research using data for the late 2000s. We show that the SPI has strong explanatory power for bilateral trade in services at the sectoral level, as well as for aggregate goods and services trade.

Suggested Citation

  • Shepherd, Ben, 2019. "Services Trade Policies and Economic Integration: New Evidence for Developing Countries," CEPR Discussion Papers 14181, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14181
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP14181
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Arnold, Jens M. & Javorcik, Beata S. & Mattoo, Aaditya, 2011. "Does services liberalization benefit manufacturing firms?: Evidence from the Czech Republic," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 136-146, September.
    2. Thomas Chaney, 2008. "Distorted Gravity: The Intensive and Extensive Margins of International Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(4), pages 1707-1721, September.
    3. Bernard Hoekman & Ben Shepherd, 2017. "Services Productivity, Trade Policy and Manufacturing Exports," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 499-516, March.
    4. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2003. "Gravity with Gravitas: A Solution to the Border Puzzle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 170-192, March.
    5. Philipp Lamprecht & Sébastien Miroudot, 2020. "The value of market access and national treatment commitments in services trade agreements," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(11), pages 2880-2904, November.
    6. Jens Matthias Arnold & Beata Javorcik & Molly Lipscomb & Aaditya Mattoo, 2016. "Services Reform and Manufacturing Performance: Evidence from India," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(590), pages 1-39, February.
    7. Yaghoob Jafari & David G. Tarr, 2017. "Estimates of Ad Valorem Equivalents of Barriers Against Foreign Suppliers of Services in Eleven Services Sectors and 103 Countries," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 544-573, March.
    8. Sebastian Benz, 2017. "Services trade costs: Tariff equivalents of services trade restrictions using gravity estimation," OECD Trade Policy Papers 200, OECD Publishing.
    9. Joseph Francois & Bernard Hoekman, 2010. "Services Trade and Policy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 48(3), pages 642-692, September.
    10. Beverelli, Cosimo & Fiorini, Matteo & Hoekman, Bernard, 2017. "Services trade policy and manufacturing productivity: The role of institutions," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 166-182.
    11. Massimo Geloso Grosso & Frédéric Gonzales & Sébastien Miroudot & Hildegunn Kyvik Nordås & Dorothée Rouzet & Asako Ueno, 2015. "Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI): Scoring and Weighting Methodology," OECD Trade Policy Papers 177, OECD Publishing.
    12. Erik Marel & Ben Shepherd, 2013. "Services Trade, Regulation and Regional Integration: Evidence from Sectoral Data," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(11), pages 1393-1405, November.
    13. Sébastien Miroudot & Ben Shepherd, 2014. "The Paradox of ‘Preferences’: Regional Trade Agreements and Trade Costs in Services," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(12), pages 1751-1772, December.
    14. Baier, Scott L. & Yotov, Yoto V. & Zylkin, Thomas, 2019. "On the widely differing effects of free trade agreements: Lessons from twenty years of trade integration," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 206-226.
    15. Fally, Thibault, 2015. "Structural gravity and fixed effects," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 76-85.
    16. Fiorini, Matteo & Hoekman, Bernard, 2018. "Services trade policy and sustainable development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 1-12.
    17. Ciuriak, Dan & Dadkhah, Ali & Lysenko, Dmitry, 2020. "The Effect of Binding Commitments on Services Trade," World Trade Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 365-378, July.
    18. Hildegunn Kyvik Nordås, 2018. "What drives trade in services? Lessons from the Nordics," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(33), pages 3532-3545, July.
    19. Hildegunn K. Nordås & Dorothée Rouzet, 2017. "The Impact of Services Trade Restrictiveness on Trade Flows," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(6), pages 1155-1183, June.
    20. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6apm7lruv088iagm4rv2c33jtg is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Ciuriak , Dan & Xiao, Jingliang & Dadkhah, Ali, 2017. "Quantifying the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership," East Asian Economic Review, Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, vol. 21(4), pages 343-384, December.
    22. Helble, Matthias & Shepherd, Ben (ed.), 2019. "Leveraging Services for Development: Prospects and Policies," ADBI Books, Asian Development Bank Institute, number 7, Décembre.
    23. Costas Arkolakis & Arnaud Costinot & Andres Rodriguez-Clare, 2012. "New Trade Models, Same Old Gains?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(1), pages 94-130, February.
    24. Hildegunn Kyvik Nordås, 2016. "Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI): The Trade Effect of Regulatory Differences," OECD Trade Policy Papers 189, OECD Publishing.
    25. Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), 2014. "Handbook of International Economics," Handbook of International Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 4, number 4.
    26. Ingo Borchert & Batshur Gootiiz & Aaditya Mattoo, 2014. "Policy Barriers to International Trade in Services: Evidence from a New Database," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 28(1), pages 162-188.
    27. Peter M., 2017. "Trade costs and services [Coûts des échanges et services]," Post-Print hal-01683083, HAL.
    28. Sebastian Benz & Frédéric Gonzales, 2019. "Intra-EEA STRI Database: Methodology and Results," OECD Trade Policy Papers 223, OECD Publishing.
    29. Robert Dekle & Jonathan Eaton & Samuel Kortum, 2008. "Global Rebalancing with Gravity: Measuring the Burden of Adjustment," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 55(3), pages 511-540, July.
    30. Sébastien Miroudot & Kätlin Pertel, 2015. "Water in the GATS: Methodology and Results," OECD Trade Policy Papers 185, OECD Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hoekman,Bernard M., 2020. "Facilitating Trade in Services," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9228, The World Bank.
    2. Michael Landesmann & Sandra M. Leitner, 2023. "Immigration and Offshoring: two forces of globalisation and their impact on employment and the bargaining power of occupational groups," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 159(2), pages 361-397, May.
    3. Estrades Pineyrua,Carmen & Maliszewska,Maryla & Osorio-Rodarte,Israel & Seara E Pereira,Maria Filipa, 2022. "Estimating the Economic and Distributional Impacts of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9939, The World Bank.
    4. Zauresh Atakhanova, 2021. "Kazakhstan’s oil boom, diversification strategies, and the service sector," Mineral Economics, Springer;Raw Materials Group (RMG);Luleå University of Technology, vol. 34(3), pages 399-409, October.
    5. Matteo Fiorini & Bernard Hoekman & Dennis Quinn, 2023. "Services trade policy and industry performance in African economies," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(2), pages 382-395, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Roy, Martin, 2019. "Elevating services: Services trade policy, WTO commitments, and their role in economic development and trade integration," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2019-01, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    2. Camille Reverdy, 2023. "Estimating the general equilibrium effects of services trade liberalization," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 493-521, May.
    3. Anirudh Shingal, 2021. "COVID-19 and Services Trade in ASEAN+6: Implications and Estimates from Structural Gravity," Working Papers DP-2021-02, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).
    4. Anirudh Shingal, 2023. "Mode 4 restrictiveness and services trade," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 159(3), pages 757-786, August.
    5. Zongo, Amara, 2020. "The Impact of Services Trade Restrictiveness on Food Trade," MPRA Paper 101658, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Zongo, Amara, 2021. "The impact of services trade restrictiveness on food trade," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 71-94.
    7. Mario Larch & Yoto V. Yotov, 2016. "General Equilibrium Trade Policy Analysis with Structural Gravity," CESifo Working Paper Series 6020, CESifo.
    8. Andre Jungmittag & Robert Marschinski, 2023. "Service trade restrictiveness and foreign direct investment—Evidence from greenfield FDI in business services," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(6), pages 1711-1758, June.
    9. Milena Kern & Jörg Paetzold & Hannes Winner, 2021. "Cutting red tape for trade in services," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(10), pages 2858-2886, October.
    10. Crozet, Matthieu & Milet, Emmanuel & Mirza, Daniel, 2016. "The impact of domestic regulations on international trade in services: Evidence from firm-level data," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 585-607.
    11. Heid, Benedikt & Stähler, Frank, 2024. "Structural gravity and the gains from trade under imperfect competition: Quantifying the effects of the European Single Market," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    12. Bernard Hoekman & Dominique Njinkeu, 2017. "Integrating Africa: Some Trade Policy Research Priorities and Challenges," RSCAS Working Papers 2017/43, European University Institute.
    13. Fiorini, Matteo & Hoekman, Bernard, 2018. "Services trade policy and sustainable development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 1-12.
    14. Céline Carrère & Monika Mrázová & J Peter Neary, 2020. "Gravity Without Apology: the Science of Elasticities, Distance and Trade," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 130(628), pages 880-910.
    15. Wenxi Lu, 2018. "Services Liberalisation, Export Similarity and Trade in Services," School of Economics and Public Policy Working Papers 2018-04, University of Adelaide, School of Economics and Public Policy.
    16. Neary, Peter & Carrère, Céline & Mrázová, Monika, 2020. "Gravity without Apologies: The Science of Elasticities, Distance, and Trade," CEPR Discussion Papers 14473, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Bernard Hoekman & Ben Shepherd, 2017. "Services Productivity, Trade Policy and Manufacturing Exports," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 499-516, March.
    18. Sebastian Benz & Janos Ferencz & Hildegunn K. Nordås, 2020. "Regulatory barriers to trade in services: A new database and composite indices," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(11), pages 2860-2879, November.
    19. Antoine Gervais, 2018. "Estimating the impact of country‐level policy restrictions on services trade," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 743-767, September.
    20. Piermartini, Roberta & Yotov, Yoto, 2016. "Estimating Trade Policy Effects with Structural Gravity," School of Economics Working Paper Series 2016-10, LeBow College of Business, Drexel University.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    International trade; Trade in services; Machine learning; Services policies; Restrictiveness indicators;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • O24 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Trade Policy; Factor Movement; Foreign Exchange Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14181. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.