Person:
Signoret, Jose E.

Global Trade and Regional Integration Unit, Macro, Trade, and Investment Global Practice
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International Trade, Development
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Global Trade and Regional Integration Unit, Macro, Trade, and Investment Global Practice
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Last updated: January 31, 2023
Biography
José Signoret in an economist in the Global Trade and Regional Integration unit in the Macro, Trade, and Investment Global Practice of the World Bank. His recent research topics include: non-tariff measures, analysis of preferential trade agreements, and firm-level trade analysis. Before joining the World Bank, he worked in the Research Division at the U.S. International Trade Commission, where he led several research projects, including the recent report on the TPP agreement. He also served as Director for Trade Capacity Building at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative during 2007–2008, focusing on TCB efforts in Latin America. He holds a Ph.D. from Berkeley and a master’s degree from Michigan.

Publication Search Results

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Publication
    Country Economic Memorandum for Sao Tome and Principe - Background Note 3: Where has Trade Growth Come from in São Tomé and Príncipe
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-06-26) Signoret, Jose E.
    This note examines the competitiveness of the export sector in São Tomé and Príncipe. It relies on the framework developed by Reis and Farole (2012) and examines the export competitiveness along four complementary dimensions: export growth and market shares, diversification in terms of product and destinations, quality of exports, and the survival or persistence of export flows. It uses export product level data for the period 2000-2017, as available, from international trade databases that help in benchmarking the performance of São Tomé and Príncipe with that of peer countries. Peer countries include, as data is available, Belize, Cabo Verde, Comoros, Dominica, Fiji, Mauritius, Maldives, Seychelles, St. Lucia and Vanuatu. While this note focuses on export outcomes, it also provides a brief picture on imports into São Tomé and Príncipe. The main findings of this note are as follows: Trade remains important for São Tomé and Príncipe, especially imports to satisfy local demand. Total exports have been increasing, both for goods and services. Goods exports, however, remain highly concentrated in cocoa exports to the EU market. Export trends for goods have tended to sustain this dependence, with very little expansion in the extensive margin, and thus with limited diversification of goods exports. This is despite relative comparative advantages in other agricultural products, such as coconuts, dried fruits, and seafood and preferential duty-free and quota-free access into the EU and other developed countries’ markets. Meanwhile, exports of services have increased rapidly, led by travel services. São Tomé and Príncipe exports more services than goods and it has become a net exporter of services. Creating strong (backward) linkages between the tourist industry and the rest of the economy could sustain growth in other industries that, in turn, can support export diversification.
  • Publication
    Trade and Poverty in EU Regions: An Empirical Analysis
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-01) Signoret, José; Cieszkowsky, Ludmila
    This study builds on recent efforts by the World Bank and the European Commission in generating detailed poverty estimates at detailed subnational levels (the EU Poverty Map). This information is combined with estimates of subnational trade flow data for subnational regions between 2000-2010, as well as information on country and regional characteristics. Poverty estimates from the EU Poverty Map refers to a relative concept of poverty, measuring the share of population below a country-specific low-income threshold. This notion of relative poverty can be informative of disparities in welfare gains within countries often associated with trade, especially given the current backlash on globalization from the perception that it may leave some segments of the population behind. The negative relationship between poverty and trade is observed when both import and export openness are considered individually, but it arises more clearly in the case of export orientation. Export orientation can be associated with lower levels of poverty particularly in the poorest regions. The relationship between import exposure and poverty rates is not significant. Additional analyses show that export openness is more strongly linked to lower poverty in regions where production tends to be more ‘low-tech’. All together, these results suggest that both exports and imports are associated to lower poverty, but especially when it relates to higher export opportunities in poorer regions and where production is concentrated in relatively labor-intensive goods. While this analysis does not consider micro-level effects such as at the enterprise or household level that could possibly show greater heterogeneity, the results suggest that cross-country estimates in the literature that show a positive effect of trade openness on economic performance tend to hold at subnational regional levels in the EU. Overall, this study shows that poverty and the relative concentrations of poor people in the EU is an issue that policymakers should put high on the agenda. Opening markets and creating a more level playing field in global markets for export opportunities is critical for regional development. For certain regions however, policies to support the transition and the mitigation of transition costs may be necessary. While the empirical evidence is still building up, whether this assistance should be industry-based, versus locality based, is an important distinction, as trade shock effects seems to matter more by locality than by industry.
  • Publication
    Strengthening Argentina's Integration into the Global Economy: Policy Proposals for Trade, Investment, and Competition
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018-04-09) Martínez Licetti, Martha; Iootty, Mariana; Goodwin, Tanja; Signoret, José
    Integration into global markets can improve the efficiency of the Argentinian economy, providing opportunities for private investment to flourish and for the associated benefits to accrue to consumers. Among many policies that are important for integrating into the global economy, particularly relevant are trade, investment, and competition policies. They all share a common attribute: the capacity to shape the incentives of firms to improve resource allocation and to strengthen productivity while integrating into international markets. Once properly combined, investment, trade, and competition polices have mutually reinforcing relationships in the sense that growth dividends stemming from reforms in one policy area are reinforced when properly combined with reforms in the other two. Against this backdrop, this report follows a three-pronged approach. It presents a set of robust empirical analyses – drawing from both general and partial equilibrium exercises - to assess the potential impacts from trade, competition, and investment policy reforms. It offers a new comparative review of international experience with structural microeconomic reform programs to bring insights for Argentina’s design and sequencing of such reforms. Finally, it presents individual reform recommendations for each institution in charge of the three respective policy areas in an integrated step-by-step framework from the firm perspective to illustrate the critical challenges to investment and internationalization for Argentinian firms.