Publication: Transparency, Trade Costs, and Regional Integration in the Asia Pacific
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2007-11
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2012-06-08
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The authors show in this paper that increasing the transparency of the trading environment can be an important complement to traditional liberalization of tariff and non-tariff barriers. Our definition of transparency is grounded in a transaction cost analysis. The authors focus on two dimensions of transparency: predictability (reducing the cost of uncertainty) and simplification (reducing information costs). Using the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) member economies as a case study, the authors construct indices of importer and exporter transparency for the region from a wide range of sources. Our results from a gravity model suggest that improving trade-related transparency in APEC could hold significant benefits by raising intra-APEC trade by proximately USD 148 billion or 7.5 pecent of baseline trade in the region.
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“Helble, Matthias; Shepherd, Ben; Wilson, John S.. 2007. Transparency, Trade Costs, and Regional Integration in the Asia Pacific. Policy Research Working Paper; No. 4401. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/7573 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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