Tariffs, Transport Costs and the WTO Doha Round: The Case of Developing Countries

The WTO Doha Round of multinational trade negotiations is labelled the “development round” to highlight the fact that progress could be achieved through the enhanced integration of the poor countries into the world economy. Since the trade agenda focuses to a large extent on the levels of direct and indirect trade barriers as well as other aspects of trade and competition policy, an important aspect of the relative trade performance of developing countries has been neglected somewhat. This paper argues that, in addition to trade barriers, other trade costs, such as communications and transport costs, have to be taken into account. These other costs can be significantly higher in developing countries, which impedes their successful integration into world markets.developing countries, transport costs, WTO Doha Round, International Relations/Trade,

Trade, environmental regulations and the World Trade Organization : new empirical evidence

The paper empirically explores the linkages between environmental regulations and international trade flows. So far, empirical studies either have failed to find any close statistical relationship or have delivered questionable results due to data limitations. Using a comprehensive new database for environmental regulations across countries, a thorough empirical investigation of that linkage for 119 countries and five high-polluting industries is performed. No evidence is found to support the pollution hypothesis that industries facing above-average abatement costs with environmental regulations would prefer pollution havens and relocate their activities. The exception is iron and steel products, where a negative and statistically significant link is established, implying that higher compliance with international treaties and conventions and more stringent regulations are associated with reduced net exports. High-income countries, where environmental regulations are usually more stringent in comparison to middle or low income countries, have experienced a considerable decline in the export-import ratio of iron and steel products since the late 1970s. There is no clear evidence that national governments choose sub-optimal policies that result in insufficient regulations, so the case for environmental standards within the WTO framework is relatively weak.Water and Industry,Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Health Promotion,Economic Theory&Research,Administrative&Regulatory Law,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Water and Industry,Administrative&Regulatory Law,Trade and Services

Gender Inequality and Trade

The paper empirically explores the international linkages between gender inequality and trade flows of a sample of 92 developed and developing countries. The focus is on comparative advantage in labour-intensive manufactured goods. The results indicate that gender wage inequality is positively associated with comparative advantage in labourintensive goods, that is, countries with a larger gender wage gap have higher exports of these goods. Also, gender inequality in labour force activity rates and educational attainment rates are negatively linked with comparative advantage in labour-intensive commodities. --Gender Inequality,Trade,Comparative Advantage

Trade Effects of the East African Community

This article evaluates the trade effects of the new East African Community, which fosters trade liberalisation among Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The analysis uses a disaggregated approach at the two-digit level of the Standard International Trade Classification. The commodities that will be particularly affected by the customs union are identified. The results show that considerable trade effects cannot be expected, except for a very narrow range of products. The transitional fund, which has been proposed to counter trade imbalances due to the new customs union in East Africa, becomes less urgent from this perspective.Customs Union, EAC, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, International Relations/Trade,

Does Foreign Aid Improve Governance?

This paper analyses the impact of aid flows on governance. Using an instrumental variable approach and a large country sample, we find that aid has a negative rather than a positive influence on governance. This outcome is robust to various model specifications. --Official Development Assistance,Governance

Does Technology Matter? How Digital Self-Efficacy Affects the Relationship between ICT Exposure and Job Dissatisfaction

Despite multiple potentials of information and communication technologies (ICT), their increasing diffusion at today’s workplaces may lead to psychological issues for employees, unveiling a dark side of ICT use. Our study aims to examine the association between work related ICT exposure (i.e. ICT use and digital work intensification) and job dissatisfaction. We further look at the role of digital self efficacy as a moderator of the effect of digital work intensification. Cross sectional data from a nationally representative study of 1,145 employees were used in multiple regression analysis. Our results show that higher levels of digital work intensification are associated with higher levels of job dissatisfaction. Further, digital self efficacy buffers the effect of digital work intensification on job dissatisfaction. Thus, our findings imply that fostering employees’ confidence in their abilities in dealing with the challenges of digitalization promotes employees’ job satisfaction and coping with the negative effects of work-related ICT exposure

Foreign direct investment, regulations, and growth

This paper explores the linkage between income growth rates and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows. So far the evidence is rather mixed, as no robust relationship between FDI and income growth has been established. The authors argue that countries need a sound business environment in the form of good government regulations to be able to benefit from FDI. Using a comprehensive data set for regulations, they test this hypothesis and find evidence that excessive regulations restrict growth through FDI only in the most regulated economies. This result holds true for different specifications of the econometric model, including instrumental variable regressions.Public Sector Regulation,Regulatory Regimes,Achieving Shared Growth,Economic Theory&Research,Foreign Direct Investment

Does Africa really benefit from trade?

We empirically analyse the impact of trade on income levels in the sub-Saharan African countries. The results indicate that the linkage between these two variables is negative for these countries. This outcome may explain the negative sign of the Africa dummy in income (or growth) regressions. --Trade,Income Levels,Sub-Saharan Africa

Technology Trade in Economic Development

Recent evidence on the respective contributions of institutions and trade to income levels across countries has demonstrated that – once endogeneity is considered – institutional quality clearly dominates the effect of trade. We argue that overall trade is not the most appropriate measure for technology diffusion as a source of productivity growth and propose to focus on imports of research and development (R&D) intensive goods instead. Overall, we confirm previous findings that institutions matter most and that overall trade is not positively associated with per-capita income levels. Yet this does not hold for technology trade, as there is a positive and significant linkage between technology imports and income levels. This outcome is robust to various model specifications, including an instrumental variable approach.Growth, Technology Diffusion, Trade, R&D Spillovers.

Technology trade in economic development

Recent evidence on the respective contributions of institutions and trade to income levels across countries has demonstrated that - once endogeneity is considered - institutional quality clearly dominates the effect of trade. We argue that overall trade is not the most appropriate measure for technology diffusion as a source of productivity growth and propose to focus on imports of research and development (R&D) intensive goods instead. Overall, we confirm previous findings that institutions matter most and that overall trade is not positively associated with per-capita income levels. Yet this does not hold for technology trade, as there is a positive and significant linkage between technology imports and income levels. This outcome is robust to various model specifications, including an instrumental variable approach. --Growth,Technology Diffusion,Trade,R&D Spillovers