Does Trade Reform Promote Economic Growth? A Review of Recent Evidence

doi:10.1093/wbro/lkae003

Publication:
Does Trade Reform Promote Economic Growth? A Review of Recent Evidence

dc.contributor.author	Irwin, Douglas A
dc.date.accessioned	2025-01-27T19:56:47Z
dc.date.available	2025-01-27T19:56:47Z
dc.date.issued	2025-01-27
dc.description.abstract	Do trade reforms that significantly reduce import barriers lead to faster economic growth? In the twenty-five years since Rodríguez and Rodrik's (2000) critical survey of empirical work on this question, new research has tried to overcome the various methodological problems that have plagued previous attempts to provide a convincing answer. I examine three strands of recent work on this issue: cross-country regressions focusing on within-country growth, synthetic control methods on specific reform episodes, and empirical country studies looking at the channels through which lower trade barriers may increase productivity. A consistent finding is that trade reforms have had a positive impact on economic growth, on average, although the effect is heterogeneous across countries. Overall, these research findings should temper some of the previous agnosticism about the empirical link between trade reform and economic performance.	en
dc.identifier.citation	The World Bank Research Observer
dc.identifier.doi	10.1596/42732
dc.identifier.issn	0257-3032
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10986/42732
dc.language.iso	en_US
dc.publisher	Published by Oxford University on behalf of the World Bank
dc.relation.ispartofseries	World Bank Research Observer
dc.rights	CC BY 3.0 IGO
dc.rights.holder	World Bank
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/
dc.subject	TRADE LIBERALIZATION
dc.subject	TRADE REFORM
dc.subject	TARIFFS
dc.subject	ECONOMIC GROWTH
dc.title	Does Trade Reform Promote Economic Growth? A Review of Recent Evidence	en
dc.type	Journal Articles
dspace.entity.type	Publication
okr.associatedcontent	https://academic.oup.com/wbro/article/40/1/147/7658088 Journal website (version of record)
okr.date.disclosure	2025-01-27
okr.doctype	Publications & Research
okr.doctype	Publications & Research::Journal Article
okr.identifier.doi	10.1093/wbro/lkae003
okr.region.geographical	World
okr.topic	International Economics and Trade::Foreign Trade Promotion and Regulation
okr.topic	International Economics and Trade::Trade Facilitation
okr.topic	Macroeconomics and Economic Growth::Economic Growth
okr.volume	40(1)
relation.isJournalIssueOfPublication	e773645a-c5a2-4a2b-ab67-8637deeee415
relation.isJournalIssueOfPublication.latestForDiscovery	e773645a-c5a2-4a2b-ab67-8637deeee415
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