OECD Trade Policy Working Papers

ISSN :: 1816-6873 (online)
DOI :: 10.1787/18166873

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This series is designed to make available to a wider readership selected trade policy studies prepared for use within the OECD.

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Page: 1 (N° 137) , 2 (N° 87) , 3 (N° 36) | Next

Number	Date	Title
N° 137	29 Mar 2012	PDF – 0.72Mb Trade, Employment and Structural Change Greg Thompson, Tim Murray, Patrick Jomini International trade produces income gains across the world by facilitating an efficient allocation of production among trading countries. However, increased trade exposure also creates some challenges, and there are adjustment costs associated with changing trade patterns. Effective...
N° 136	22 Mar 2012	PDF – 0.65Mb Trade Effects of Exchange Rates and their Volatility: Chile and New Zealand Marilyne Huchet-Bourdon, Jane Korinek Trade deficits and surpluses are sometimes attributed to intentionally low or high exchange rate levels. The impact of exchange rate levels on trade has been much debated but the large body of existing empirical literature does not suggest an unequivocally clear picture of the trade impacts of...
N° 135	20 Jan 2012	PDF – 0.46Mb Trade and Innovation Nobuo Kiriyama Innovation is critical to creating new sources of growth. Trade is one of the framework conditions that can strengthen innovation in the business sector, as set out in the OECD Innovation Strategy in 2010. This paper broadly sets out three channels through which trade affects innovation. First,...
N° 134	31 Oct 2011	PDF – 0.52Mb Openness, Wage Gaps and Unions in Chile Jorge Friedman, Nanno Mulder, Sebastián Faúndez, Esteban Pérez Caldentey, Carlos Yévenes, Mario Velásquez, Fernando Baizán, Gerhard Reinecke This paper examines the relationship between wages and levels of trade and FDI openness in twenty-nine sectors of the Chilean economy. Over the last four decades, this country almost fully liberalized its trade and foreign direct investment, which accelerated growth of flows in both areas and...
N° 133	19 Oct 2011	PDF – 0.45Mb Employment and the Political Economy of Trade Craig VanGrasstek The aims of this paper are to review the main schools of thought on the political economy of trade and employment, to review the empirical evidence supporting these schools, and to consider the implications for public policy. Special emphasis is given to the potential costs of liberalization...
N° 132	19 Oct 2011	PDF – 0.41Mb A Literature Review on Trade and Informal Labour Markets in Developing Countries Laura Munro This report provides a summary of the literature on the relationship between trade and informality in developing countries, with an emphasis on the BRIICS. While main conclusions of the ILO and WTO (2009) literature review are highlighted, the report focuses on additional and more recent...
N° 131	24 Feb 2012	PDF – 0.89Mb Effects of NAFTA on US Employment and Policy Responses Christopher J. O’Leary, Randall W. Eberts, Brian M. Pittelko The signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was a contentious event in United States (US) politics, in particular with respect to public views about the possible labour market effects. This paper is structured as follows. First, we provide background on the political debate...
N° 130	19 Oct 2011	PDF – 0.62Mb Agricultural Trade and Employment in South Africa Ron Sandrey, Cecilia Punt, Hans Grinsted Jensen, Nick Vink This report provides an overview of policy changes in South African agriculture over the past three decades, and of some of the associated impacts on output, trade patterns and employment. In agriculture, the story is one of widespread substitution of labour for capital. While the sector has...
N° 129	19 Oct 2011	PDF – 0.54Mb Trade and Occupational Employment in Mexico since NAFTA Raymundo Miguel Campos-Vázquez, José Antonio Rodríguez-López We analyze the effects of trade liberalization on Mexican employment at an occupational level for the period from 1992 to 2009, ranking occupations by skill level. We find that the reduction in trade costs associated with Mexico's entry to NAFTA is related to larger employment expansions in...
N° 128	20 Oct 2011	PDF – 0.37Mb Exporting, Employment, and Skill Upgrading Chin Hee Hahn, Chang-Gyun Park This paper examines the role of exports in skill upgrading in the Korean manufacturing sector during the 1990s utilizing a unique plant-level panel data set. The empirical results indicate the important role of exports on relative employment on skilled versus unskilled workers. The main...
N° 127	19 Oct 2011	PDF – 0.42Mb Trade and Employment in Japan Kozo Kiyota In light of the importance of the relationship between trade and employment in Japan, this paper examines the effects of exports on employment (i.e. the number of workers), working-hours, and total worker-hours (i.e. employment times working-hours). This paper utilized the Japanese input-output...
N° 126	19 Oct 2011	PDF – 0.63Mb Trade and Employment in Italy P. Lelio Iapadre This paper addresses the relationship between trade, employment and wages in Italy from the perspective of the specific features of its international specialisation pattern. It focuses on several key questions: To what extent has international economic integration, including trade and...
N° 125	19 Oct 2011	PDF – 1.02Mb Trade and Labour Market Outcomes in Germany Holger Görg, Dennis Görlich The German economy is characterized by a high degree of foreign exposure through exports and imports. This paper considers the link between trade and labour market outcomes in Germany. To that end we combine individual-level data from the German Socio Economic Panel for the period 1999 to 2007...
N° 124	21 Oct 2011	PDF – 0.49Mb Employment and Trade in France Francis Kramarz This paper examines, in France, the relationship between imports – and trade more generally – and employment. It builds on the burgeoning literature relating trade and labour markets, taking into account theories of firm-level trade and previous empirical work. The analysis in the paper draws...
N° 123	01 Nov 2011	PDF – 1.34Mb Trade and Employment Elena Arnal Spain and Denmark are two European countries differing considerably in their development and productive structures as well as in their internationalisation process. This affects many dimensions of each economy, most notably their trade volumes, market sizes and product specialization. Spain and...
N° 122	12 Oct 2011	PDF – 0.73Mb Wage Implications of Trade Liberalisation Susan Stone, Ricardo Cavazos Cepeda The relationship between trade and wages has been subject to intense scrutiny in the academic literature with no clear consensus emerging. This paper adds to this body of research by moving beyond the single country analysis level to a panel including developed and developing countries and data...
N° 121	05 Oct 2011	PDF – 0.74Mb Comparative Advantage and Trade Performance Przemyslaw Kowalski This paper builds on recent generalisations of theory and empirics of comparative advantage and establishes the relative importance of different sources of comparative advantage in explaining trade, with particular focus on policy and institutional factors. The broad policy and institutional...
N° 120	23 Nov 2011	PDF – 1.56Mb Global Imbalances Przemyslaw Kowalski, Molly Lesher The search for balanced, sustainable growth clearly involves the unwinding of large and persistent global imbalances. Much of the attention in the rebalancing debate has centred on how shifts in monetary and fiscal policies affect current account imbalances. This paper goes beyond macroeconomic...
N° 119	10 Oct 2011	PDF – 0.62Mb To What Extent Do Exchange Rates and their Volatility Affect Trade? Marilyne Huchet-Bourdon, Jane Korinek Trade deficits and surpluses are sometimes attributed to intentionally low or high exchange rate levels. The impact of exchange rate levels on trade has been much debated but the large body of existing empirical literature does not suggest an unequivocally clear picture of the trade impacts of...
N° 118	22 Aug 2011	PDF – 1.53Mb Trade Facilitation Indicators Evdokia Moïsé, Thomas Orliac, Peter Minor This report presents the findings of the OECD indicators for assessing the economic and trade impact of specific trade facilitation measures in OECD countries. Twelve trade facilitation indicators (TFIs) have been constructed, corresponding to the main policy areas under negotiation at the WTO,...
N° 117	10 Aug 2011	PDF – 0.59Mb Trade in Tasks Rainer Lanz, Sébastien Miroudot, Hildegunn Kyvik Nordås Specialisation or division of labour is an important source of economic growth, but the degree of division of labour is constrained by the extent of the market. Trade in tasks represents the latest turn in a virtuous cycle of deepening specialisation, expansion of the market and productivity...
N° 116	24 June 2011	PDF – 1.61Mb Estimating the Constraints to Trade of Developing Countries Jean-Jacques Hallaert, Ricardo Cavazos Cepeda, Gimin Kang The severity of binding constraints to trade expansion in developing countries and the importance of the complementary policies that will maximize the impact of trade reforms on trade and economic growth are identified and quantified in this report. As trade-related needs of developing...
N° 115	28 June 2011	PDF – 1.22Mb Trade in Information and Communications Technology and its Contribution to Trade and Innovation Nobuo Kiriyama Information and communications technology (ICT) has been seen as a major contributor to productivity growth and as a key tool for innovation. Trade liberalisation can play a role in encouraging ICT adoption by fostering competition and by reducing ICT prices. While the trade in ICT goods has...
N° 114	24 June 2011	PDF – 0.86Mb Intra-Firm Trade Rainer Lanz, Sébastien Miroudot The emergence of global value chains and the expansion of activities of multinational enterprises have increased the value of intra-firm trade flows. Despite growing attention from policymakers, few data are collected on trade transactions between related parties. Available evidence suggests...
N° 113	01 Apr 2011	PDF – 1.29Mb Trade and Innovation: Pharmaceuticals Nobuo Kiriyama Globalisation in the pharmaceuticals sector is entering a new phase. Many new drugs are marketed globally, and these revenues encourage further investment in research and development (R&D). The industry is undergoing substantial transition, with increased competition and downward pressure on...
N° 112	14 Apr 2011	PDF – 0.73Mb The Political Economy of Services in Regional Trade Agreements Craig VanGrasstek Do the services commitments that countries have made in their post-Uruguay Round regional trade agreements (RTAs) indicate the types of concessions that they would be willing to multilateralise in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)? While there are important legal and economic...
N° 111	01 Apr 2011	PDF – 0.47Mb Transparency Mechanisms and Non-Tariff Measures Evdokia Moïsé Lack of regulatory transparency is a major and recurrent obstacle for businesses seeking to trade internationally. This study finds that transparency mechanisms applied at different stages of the design, finalisation and implementation of domestic regulation have allowed countries to reduce...
N° 110	01 Apr 2011	PDF – 0.42Mb Dynamic Gains from Trade Susan Stone, Ben Shepherd Dynamic gains from trade can be an important conduit for increased firm-level innovation and productivity, both key components of economic growth. This paper builds on previous research on the dynamic gains from trade by moving beyond a single country basis to examine impacts on firm-level...
N° 109	01 Apr 2011	PDF – 2.80Mb The Role of Factor Content in Trade Susan Stone, Ricardo Cavazos Cepeda, Anna Jankowska The pattern of trade analysed from a factor content perspective reflects the relative factor endowments of the countries examined. Although some large economies, such as the United States, seem to exhibit counter-intuitive behaviour, this is reversed when intermediate trade is taken into...
N° 108	01 Mar 2011	PDF – 0.65Mb To What Extent Are High-Quality Logistics Services Trade Facilitating? Jane Korinek, Patricia Sourdin Trade logistics facilitate trade. Quality logistics services play an important role in facilitating the transportation of international trade in goods: inefficient logistics services impede trade by imposing an extra cost in terms of time as well as money. As developed nations shift from...
N° 107	31 Jan 2011	PDF – 1.98Mb The Impact of Trade Liberalisation on Jobs and Growth OECD This report shows how more open markets in goods and services can contribute to creating jobs and increase incomes. Reducing tariffs and non-tariff barriers can help in the short run where the economic crisis has led to significant involuntary unemployment by reducing costs of imported products...
N° 106	06 Dec 2010	PDF – 0.61Mb Multilateralising Regionalism: How Preferential Are Services Commitments in Regional Trade Agreements? Sébastien Miroudot, Jehan Sauvage, Marie Sudreau This report examines services schedules of commitments in 56 regional trade agreements (RTAs) where an OECD country is a party. The preferential content of RTAs is assessed through an analysis of market access and national treatment commitments at the level of the 155 sub-sectors of the General...
N° 105	14 Sep 2010	PDF – 0.38Mb Policy Complements to the Strengthening of IPRS in Developing Countries - China's Intellectual Property Environment Minyuan Zhao Along many dimensions, China has made progress in strengthening the protection of intellectual property (IP) and expanding its research and development (R&D) base over the past two decades. Meanwhile, people’s understanding of IP has gone beyond a mechanical interpretation of patent law or...
N° 104	14 Sep 2010	PDF – 0.69Mb Policy Complements to the Strengthening of IPRS in Developing Countries Ricardo Cavazos Cepeda, Douglas C. Lippoldt, Jonathan Senft The past two decades have witnessed an active period of global reform with respect to policies concerning Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs). This paper examines – from an empirical, economic perspective – policies that complement the generally strengthened framework for IPRs in developing...
N° 103	29 Sep 2010	PDF – 1.22Mb Trade and Innovation: Report on the Chemicals Sector Nobuo Kiriyama This study analyses linkages between trade and innovation in the chemicals sector, building on past work at the OECD on trade and innovation. The chemicals sector has a long history of innovation and is a large trading item. It covers very diverse sub-sectors. This paper analyses and compares...
N° 102	19 July 2010	PDF – 3.44Mb The Use of International Standards in Technical Regulation Barbara Fliess, Frédéric Gonzales, Jeonghoi Kim, Raymond Schonfeld To what extent are governments drawing on relevant international standards in their technical regulations, as mandated by the WTO TBT Agreement? A number of sources of data exist, including electronic databases maintained by governments, but they cannot be used to obtain...
N° 101	19 July 2010	PDF – 0.55Mb Recent Trends in Export Restrictions Jeonghoi Kim Prices for commodities such as minerals and metals have increased significantly over the past few years. At the same time, there has also been an increase in restrictions on the export of raw materials which has led policy makers and business people to address free trade of raw materials. This...
N° 100	09 July 2010	PDF – 0.32Mb Increasing the Impact of Trade Expansion on Growth Jean-Jacques Hallaert In order to reach its objectives, Aid for Trade should not only focus on helping developing countries to turn trade opportunities into trade but also tackle the binding constraints that choke the impact of trade on economic growth. This report shows that although most trade reforms had a...
N° 99	28 June 2010	PDF – 0.36Mb Multilateralising Regionalism Lior Herman This study analyses the extent to which e-commerce provisions in existing RTAs can be multilateralised. E-commerce has been recognised as an important engine for growth and development, yet WTO negotiations in this area have yielded very little progress so far. Against the backdrop of...
N° 98	02 June 2010	PDF – 0.56Mb The Availability and Cost of Short-Term Trade Finance and its Impact on Trade Jane Korinek, Jean Le Cocguic, Patricia Sourdin The systemic nature of the recent financial crisis precipitated a general and synchronized drop of activity in the interbank market, contaminating most banks in almost all regions. The ensuing economic crisis was characterised by a drop in production coupled with a much larger drop in trade...
N° 97	02 June 2010	PDF – 0.55Mb International Standards and Trade G.M. Peter Swann While there is a large literature on the economic theory of international standards, and their presumed effects, we know much less about how international standards work in practice. This paper reviews the body of empirical work that has investigated the specific question: How international...
N° 96	02 June 2010	PDF – 0.57Mb Bilateral and Regional Trade Agreements and Technical Barriers to Trade: An African Perspective Nico Meyer, Tamas Fenyes, Martin Breitenbach, Ernst Idsardi Regional trade agreements (RTAs) present opportunities for controlling technical barriers to trade (TBTs). Using key principles and provisions of the WTO Agreement on TBT as a yardstick for analysis, this paper examines whether and how eight major regional integration agreements within the...
N° 95	29 Mar 2010	PDF – 0.46Mb Export Restrictions on Strategic Raw Materials and Their Impact on Trade Jane Korinek, Jeonghoi Kim Barriers to trade come in a variety of forms. This paper examines one such barrier, export restrictions, and how it impacts trade and global supply in selected strategic metals and minerals. The metals and minerals examined in the paper are of particular interest for a number of reasons: they...
N° 94	02 Dec 2009	PDF – 0.54Mb Binding Constraints to Trade Expansion Jean-Jacques Hallaert, Laura Munro Trade can be a powerful engine for economic growth, poverty reduction, and development. However, harnessing the power of trade is often difficult for developing countries, particularly the least developed countries, because of supply-side domestic constraints (lack of trade-related...
N° 93	03 Nov 2009	PDF – 1.01Mb Trade in Intermediate Goods and Services Sébastien Miroudot, Rainer Lanz, Alexandros Ragoussis This study analyses trade flows in intermediate goods and services among OECD countries and with their main trading partners. Combining trade data and input-output tables, bilateral trade in intermediate goods and services is estimated according to the industry of origin and the using industry...
N° 92	28 Sep 2009	PDF – 0.73Mb Clarifying Trade Costs Jane Korinek, Patricia Sourdin Maritime transport costs have a significant impact on the trade in agricultural goods. Maritime transport costs represent a high proportion of the imported value of agricultural products -- 10% on average, which is a similar level of magnitude as agricultural tariffs. This study shows that a...
N° 91	07 Sep 2009	PDF – 1.97Mb South Africa's Trade and Growth Przemyslaw Kowalski, Ralph Lattimore, Novella Bottini This paper examines key trade and trade related issues facing South Africa. It describes South Africa‘s re-entry into the global trade architecture and its economic growth in the context of its trade performance, as well as the composition and performance of South African exports at the product...
N° 90	22 July 2009	PDF – 2.07Mb Economic Impacts of the Phase-Out in 2005 of Quantitative Restrictions under the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing Przemyslaw Kowalski, Margit Molnár This paper discusses the economic impacts of the phase-out of the Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA), which was provided for under the 1994 Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC). It presents an overview of the integration process of textile and clothing products into the GATT, takes stock of the...
N° 89	28 July 2009	PDF – 0.65Mb Vertical Trade, Trade Costs and FDI Sébastien Miroudot, Alexandros Ragoussis Firms find advantages in sourcing inputs from abroad and in fragmenting their production process. On average, vertical trade represents about one third of total trade among OECD countries. This report describes and illustrates new firm strategies of vertical specialisation and explores the...
N° 88	19 May 2009	PDF – 0.79Mb India's Trade Integration, Realising the Potential Przemyslaw Kowalski, Nora Dihel This study examines economic implications of India’s trade and trade policy reforms during the period from 1990 to 2007. It first describes India’s economic growth and the composition and performance of its trade at the product and broad sector level. Next, recent reforms and the current trade...

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Page: 1 (N° 137) , 2 (N° 87) , 3 (N° 36) | Next