Publication: Product Specific Technical Assistance for Exports--Has It Been Effective?
No Thumbnail Available
Published
2009
ISSN
09638199
Date
2012-03-30
Author(s)
von Uexkull, Erik
Editor(s)
Abstract
The international community is placing increasing emphasis on aid for trade to assist low income countries to integrate into the global economy and to address their domestic constraints to export driven growth. There is, however, scant information on the effectiveness of previous support for export development to inform the design of new initiatives. In this paper, we exploit information on product specific technical assistance for trade and estimate a simple partial equilibrium model to assess the impact on the key measurable outcome--exports of the product subject to assistance. We apply a difference in differences approach to isolate the impact of the policy interventions and draw four main conclusions: on average, export development (ED) programs have coincided with or predated stronger export performance; such programs appear to be more effective where there is already significant export activity; there is some concern about the additionality of the programs and that support may be being channeled to sectors that would have prospered anyway; ultimately, conclusions strongly depend on what one postulates would have happened in the absence of the policy intervention, so the definition of a credible counterfactual is of utmost importance for the evaluation of technical assistance for exports.
Link to Data Set
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Citations
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Impacts of the Rise of China on Developing Country Trade : Evidence from North Africa(2010)Despite the global financial and economic crisis, China has continued to experience strong export-driven growth and, indeed, became the world's largest exporting country in 2009. This rise of China in international markets presents African countries with growing competition in their home and export markets, but also with new opportunities. This paper focuses on the impacts of these developments on countries in North Africa, which are directly affected by the prominence of Chinese manufacturing. In particular, the analysis addresses two policy questions: first, is competition from China leading to substantial displacement of resources that incur significant adjustment costs while moving to new activities, or are there opportunities to exploit finer patterns of specialization that entail less disruption; and second, will policies that mitigate the impact of competition from China limit the longer-term capacity to exploit new opportunities in the global market? The findings from the empirical analysis suggest that policy makers can support North African producers in the increasingly fierce competition with China by reviewing the regulatory and incentives environment, reducing trade logistics costs, and broadening trade promotion efforts to non-traditional markets.Publication Balancing Productivity and Trade Objectives in a Competing Environment: Should India Commercialize GM Rice with or without China?(2009)India is considering approving genetically modified (GM) rice, but it fears losing rice exports to sensitive countries with import regulations on GM food, and may wait for China to lead the way. Using a multiregion, computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, we simulate the economic effects of introducing GM rice in India with or without China in the presence of labeling and import approval regulations of GM food in GM sensitive importing countries. We find that the welfare gains with GM rice in India would largely exceed any potential export loss, and that the segregation of non-GM rice could help reduce these minor losses. We also find no significant first mover advantage for India or China on GM rice. The opportunity cost of segregation of non-GM rice is much larger for sensitive importers than for India, which suggests that these importers would have the incentive to pay for the cost of segregation.Publication Carbon Labelling and Low-Income Country Exports: A Review of the Development Issues(2009)This article discusses the carbon accounting and carbon-labelling schemes being developed to address growing concerns over climate change. Its particular concern is their impact on small stakeholders, especially low-income countries. The popular belief that trade is by definition problematic is not true; carbon efficiencies elsewhere in the supply chain may more than offset emissions from transportation. Indeed, low-income countries may offer important opportunities for carbon emission reductions because of their favourable climatic conditions and use of low energy-intensive production techniques. However, their effective inclusion in labelling schemes will require innovative solutions to provide low-cost data collection and certification.Publication The Growth of China and India: Implications and Policy Reform Options for Malaysia(2010)This study explores the trade-related impacts of rapid growth of China and India on the Malaysian economy and evaluates policy options to better position Malaysia to take advantage of these changes. Higher growth in China and India is likely to raise Malaysia's national income and to expand Malaysia's natural resource and agricultural exports, while putting downward pressure on exports from some manufacturing and service sectors. Increases in the quality and variety of exports from China and India are likely to increase substantially the overall gains to Malaysia. The expansion of the natural resource sectors and the contraction of manufacturing and services reflect a Dutch-disease effect that will raise the importance of policies to facilitate adaptation to the changing world economy and improve competitiveness. Most-favoured-nation (MFN) liberalisation would increase welfare, and, by increasing competitiveness, raise output and exports of key industries. Preferential liberalisation with India and completely free trade with China would provide greater market access gains than MFN reform, but neither would be as effective in increasing income as MFN liberalisation, and free trade agreements would lead to greater competitive pressure on many of Malaysia's industries than MFN liberalisation. Increased investments in education and infrastructure could boost manufacturing and services sectors in Malaysia, while improving trade logistics would benefit sectors with high transport costs, including the agricultural and resource-based industries.Publication Changes in Trade and Domestic Distortions Affecting China's Agriculture(2009)This paper assesses the implications of China's trade and domestic policies for incentives to producers in China. It uses a price comparison methodology (nominal rates of assistance--at the border and the farmgate), with adjustments for exchange rate distortions in the first part of the sample period (1981-1994). On average, distortions to agricultural incentives have been reduced. In the early 1980s, on average, China's domestic prices were far below international prices. There were substantial variations, however, between imported (which were being protected) and exported goods. During the 1980s and 1990s the gap between domestic and international prices for both imports and exports narrowed initially mainly due to the elimination of domestic policy distortions. Between the mid-1990s and 2004, trade liberalization policy furthered narrowed the gap between world and China farmgate prices. By the mid-2000s, China's agriculture was operating with only small price distortions.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
No results found.