International Trade, Welfare, and the Theory of General Equilibrium


Book Description

Provides theoretical and applied contributions connected by the methodological approach to the use of general equilibrium model.




A Practical Guide to Trade Policy Analysis


Book Description

Trade flows and trade policies need to be properly quantified to describe, compare, or follow the evolution of policies between sectors or countries or over time. This is essential to ensure that policy choices are made with an appropriate knowledge of the real conditions. This practical guide introduces the main techniques of trade and trade policy data analysis. It shows how to develop the main indexes used to analyze trade flows, tariff structures, and non-tariff measures. It presents the databases needed to construct these indexes as well as the challenges faced in collecting and processing these data, such as measurement errors or aggregation bias. Written by experts with practical experience in the field, A Practical Guide to Trade Policy Analysis has been developed to contribute to enhance developing countries' capacity to analyze and implement trade policy. It offers a hands-on introduction on how to estimate the distributional effects of trade policies on welfare, in particular on inequality and poverty. The guide is aimed at government experts engaged in trade negotiations, as well as students and researchers involved in trade-related study or research. An accompanying DVD contains data sets and program command files required for the exercises. Copublished by the WTO and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development




Introduction to Computable General Equilibrium Models


Book Description

The book provides a hands-on introduction to computable general equilibrium (CGE) models, written at an accessible, undergraduate level.




For the Benefit of All: Fiscal Policies and Equity-Efficiency Trade-offs in the Age of Automation


Book Description

Many studies predict massive job losses and real wage decline as a result of the ongoing widespread automation of production, a trend that may be further aggravated by the COVID-19 crisis. Yet automation is also expected to raise productivity and output. How can we share the gains from automation more widely, for the benefit of all? And what are the attendant equity-efficiency trade-offs? We analyze this issue by considering the effects of fiscal policies that seek to redistribute the gains from automation and address income inequality. We use a dynamic general equilibrium model with monopolistic competition, including a novel specification linking corporate power to automation. While fiscal policy cannot eliminate the classic equity-efficiency trade-offs, it can help improve them, reducing inequality at small or no loss of output. This is particularly so when policy takes advantage of novel, less distortive transmission channels of fiscal policy created by the empirically observed link between corporate market power and automation.




The Global Trade Slowdown


Book Description

This paper focuses on the sluggish growth of world trade relative to income growth in recent years. The analysis uses an empirical strategy based on an error correction model to assess whether the global trade slowdown is structural or cyclical. An estimate of the relationship between trade and income in the past four decades reveals that the long-term trade elasticity rose sharply in the 1990s, but declined significantly in the 2000s even before the global financial crisis. These results suggest that trade is growing slowly not only because of slow growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but also because of a structural change in the trade-GDP relationship in recent years. The available evidence suggests that the explanation may lie in the slowing pace of international vertical specialization rather than increasing protection or the changing composition of trade and GDP.







The World Bank Research Program, 2005-2007


Book Description

This pocket-sized reference on key environmental data for over 200 countries includes key indicators on agriculture, forestry, biodiversity, energy, emission and pollution, and water and sanitation. The volume helps establish a sound base of information to help set priorities and measure progress toward environmental sustainability goals.




Pro-poor Growth and Liberalization in Developing Economies


Book Description

By looking at the link between trade liberalization and pro-poor growth in Nepal, this book explores how a developing and transition economy can attain higher and pro-poor growth along with the ongoing trend of globalization. The author develops a social accounting database for Nepal and applies it to quantify computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to investigate the trade-offs between growth and distribution that are associated with opening up the economy and deregulating it. The book presents a number of pragmatic scenarios that bring about the desired pro-poor growth effects in order to demonstrate possible outcomes for policy making. The research findings apply to other economies with similar macroeconomic structure to Nepal; those small economies with a dominant, traditional, and stagnant agriculture; fragile industrial base, weak and volatile external sector, and almost half of the population living below the poverty line. This book will be of considerable interest to students and scholars in the areas of development economics, political economy of policy reforms, and trade and poverty with special emphasis on South Asia.




Essays on trade and equity


Book Description