Regional trade policy options for Tanzania : the importance of services commitments

Despite the growing importance of commitments to foreign investors in services in regional trade agreements, there are no applied general equilibrium models in the literature that assess these regional impacts. This paper develops a 52 sector applied general equilibrium model of Tanzania with foreign direct investment, and uses that model to assess Tanzania's regional and multilateral trade options. The model incorporates the features of the modern theory of international trade that has shown empirically that trade and foreign direct investment can increase productivity, and trade and foreign direct investment with technologically advanced countries is especially valuable for that purpose. To assess the sensitivity of the results to parameter values, the model is executed 30,000 times, and the results are reported as confidence intervals of the sample distributions. The analysis finds that a 50 percent preferential reduction in the ad valorem equivalents of barriers in all business services by Tanzania with respect to its African regional partners would be slightly beneficial for Tanzania. But wider liberalization, with larger partners or multilaterally, it will yield much larger gains due to providing access to a much wider set of service providers. Finally, the results show that the largest gains in services would be derived from reduction of regulatory barriers that are geographically non-discriminatory.Economic Theory&Research,Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Emerging Markets,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform

Impact of trade in services on gender employment in India

Trade in services has played a pivotal role in boosting economic growth of India. However, very few studies exist that trace its gender differential impacts. This study makes a pioneering attempt to estimate the impact of exports of services on gender employment in 46 sectors, which include 15 services sectors. Social Accounting Matrix has been used to generate gender employment multipliers and identify sectors where higher exports of services may lead to greater gender employment equality. Further, a primary survey is undertaken to capture the gender differential impact of trade in Information and Technology Enabled Services. Policy implications to gender sensitise trade policy are derived from the results.Gender and trade in services, Gender employment, SAM, Gender impact of trade in ITES; Gender and trade in services in India

Export Dynamism and Market Access

trade flows, trade liberalization, international production networks, development policy

Trends in Technical Progress in India .Analysis of Input-Output Tables from 1968 to 2003

The paper is based on the 8 Input . Output (I-O) tables for the Indian economy available over a period of 36 years from 1968-69 to 2003-04. The technical progress (TP) in the context of the I-O tables is based on the concept of a production function defining the relationship between gross output and material inputs as well as value added at the disaggregated sectoral level. The paper attempts to answer the following questions: (i) Was the TP substantial and continuous throughout the period?; (ii) Was the rate of TP during the inward looking and outward looking growth strategy phases of the economy the same?; and (iii) Was the rate of TP at the disaggregated sectoral level almost constant over time? In order to measure the rate of TP, the available eight national I-O tables in India are first made compatible for the number, scope and definitions of sectors as well as for prices by converting them at constant 1993-94 prices. Chenery-Watanabe coefficient is used for measuring the rate of TP for different sectors across the 8 I-O tables.

Trade and Development in Vietnam: Exploring Investment Linkages

This paper presents and uses a new, stylized single country dynamic CGE model to explore the trade-development linkages in Vietnam. Application of this framework involves addressing three basic questions: 1. Does a model that properly determines capacity additions and more fully captures macroeconomic accounting and growth dynamics predict trade levels in a satisfactory manner? 2. Are those capacity additions determined by trade liberalization, and if so, which aspects of trade liberalization? 3. Under this framework what are expected impacts of trade liberalization initiatives, such as past bilateral trade agreements and recent WTO accession, taking into account their potential effect on incentives to invest via both tariff changes and institutional reforms? We also explore the role of the state in determining investment patterns, since the government of Vietnam has played a crucial role in setting both the aggregate level and sectoral pattern of investment in the past. But recently there has been a recovery of foreign investment as well as an upsurge of investment by the domestic private sector. Moreover, Vietnam’s WTO accession agreement was as much about incentives to FDI as it was about tariff concessions, and it spurred ongoing institutional reforms that impact the investment climate.trade, development, Vietman, investment linkages

Abstracts : Policy Research working paper series - numbers 2458 - 2498

This paper contains abstracts of Policy, Research Working Paper series Numbers 2458 - 2498.Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform,Health Economics&Finance,ICT Policy and Strategies,Non Bank Financial Institutions

Competition Policy in Turkey

We review the enforcement of competition policy and the activities of Turkish Competition Authority during 1997-2000. Descriptive statistics are provided on the caseload handled, such as types of anti-competitive behavior investigated, breakdown of investigations by industry, violations found, and penalties imposed. Competition Authority has been stretched in terms of manpower as it has faced a flood of applications in addition to having to develop the necessary secondary legislation. The most salient cases handled concerned infringement of competition, while a rather lenient position was taken in authorizing mergers and acquisitions. The silence of the Turkish Competition Law regarding public undertakings is a potential source of problem for aligning competition policies with those of EU.competition policy; competition authority; Turkey