Measuring openness to trade

Trade openness, capital openness and government size

This paper provides empirical evidence of the relation between trade openness, capital openness and government expenditures in a cross-sectional time-series context. It is shown that capital openness is significantly and negatively related to government expenditures in line with the conventional wisdom that capital mobility may undermine the ability of governments to maintain larger public sect...

Trade Openness and Antitrust Law*

Abstract. Openness to international trade and adopting stringent antitrust laws are both ways that countries can curb anticompetitive behavior. But scholars have long debated the relationship between these two tools. Some have argued that greater trade openness makes antitrust unnecessary, while others have argued that antitrust laws are still needed to realize the benefits of trade liberalizat...

Bilateral trade , openness and asset holdings

Is Trade Policy Openness Good for Growth?

Very few issues are more contentious today than the effects of trade policy on the rate of economic growth and poverty in developing countries. The paper investigates the relationship between trade barriers and growth using a dynamic panel regression model for data on 48 developing countries over 1980-1999. Trade barriers are captured by measures of tariffs, import and export taxes. Particular ...

Trade openness, export diversification, and political regimes

Recent studies have challenged the view that trade openness leads to more specialization in countries’ trade. Using a panel of 116 countries over 35 years, we show that openness can be positively associated with both specialization and diversification, depending on the measure used. Moreover, for developing countries in our sample, the effect of openness on trade structure depends on the type o...