A Simple Method to Quantify the ex-ante Effects of 'Deep' Trade Liberalization and 'Hard' Trade Protection

This paper proposes a simple and flexible econometric approach to quantify ex-ante the “deep” impact of trade liberalization and the “hard” effects of protection with the empirical structural gravity model. Specifically, the paper argues that the d...

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Main Authors: Larch, Mario, Tan, Shawn W., Yotov, Yoto V.
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/899351633373629469/A-Simple-Method-to-Quantify-the-ex-ante-Effects-of-Deep-Trade-Liberalization-and-Hard-Trade-Protection
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36342
id okr-10986-36342
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-363422021-10-13T05:10:41Z A Simple Method to Quantify the ex-ante Effects of 'Deep' Trade Liberalization and 'Hard' Trade Protection Larch, Mario Tan, Shawn W. Yotov, Yoto V. TRADE COSTS TRADE POLICY STRUCTURAL GRAVITY CEFTA TRADE LIBERALIZATION TRADE PROTECTION FREE TRADE AGREEMENT This paper proposes a simple and flexible econometric approach to quantify ex-ante the “deep” impact of trade liberalization and the “hard” effects of protection with the empirical structural gravity model. Specifically, the paper argues that the difference between the estimates of border indicator variables for affected and non-affected countries can be used as a comprehensive measure of the change in bilateral trade costs in response to a hypothetical policy change. To demonstrate the effectiveness of these methods, the paper focus on the integration between the countries from the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) and the European Union (EU), which is an important policy application that has not been studied before due to lack of data. This analysis overcomes this challenge by utilizing a new dataset on trade and production that covers all EU countries and all CEFTA members (except for Kosovo). The partial equilibrium estimates that we obtain confirm the validity of our methods, while the corresponding general equilibrium effects point to significant and heterogeneous potential gains for the CEFTA countries from joining the EU. The proposed methods can also be extended to ex-post analysis and are readily applicable to other applications, for example, “hard” Brexit. 2021-10-12T17:17:49Z 2021-10-12T17:17:49Z 2021-10 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/899351633373629469/A-Simple-Method-to-Quantify-the-ex-ante-Effects-of-Deep-Trade-Liberalization-and-Hard-Trade-Protection http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36342 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9791 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Europe and Central Asia Europe European Union
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic TRADE COSTS
TRADE POLICY
STRUCTURAL GRAVITY
CEFTA
TRADE LIBERALIZATION
TRADE PROTECTION
FREE TRADE AGREEMENT
spellingShingle TRADE COSTS
TRADE POLICY
STRUCTURAL GRAVITY
CEFTA
TRADE LIBERALIZATION
TRADE PROTECTION
FREE TRADE AGREEMENT
Larch, Mario
Tan, Shawn W.
Yotov, Yoto V.
A Simple Method to Quantify the ex-ante Effects of 'Deep' Trade Liberalization and 'Hard' Trade Protection
geographic_facet Europe and Central Asia
Europe
European Union
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9791
description This paper proposes a simple and flexible econometric approach to quantify ex-ante the “deep” impact of trade liberalization and the “hard” effects of protection with the empirical structural gravity model. Specifically, the paper argues that the difference between the estimates of border indicator variables for affected and non-affected countries can be used as a comprehensive measure of the change in bilateral trade costs in response to a hypothetical policy change. To demonstrate the effectiveness of these methods, the paper focus on the integration between the countries from the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) and the European Union (EU), which is an important policy application that has not been studied before due to lack of data. This analysis overcomes this challenge by utilizing a new dataset on trade and production that covers all EU countries and all CEFTA members (except for Kosovo). The partial equilibrium estimates that we obtain confirm the validity of our methods, while the corresponding general equilibrium effects point to significant and heterogeneous potential gains for the CEFTA countries from joining the EU. The proposed methods can also be extended to ex-post analysis and are readily applicable to other applications, for example, “hard” Brexit.
format Working Paper
author Larch, Mario
Tan, Shawn W.
Yotov, Yoto V.
author_facet Larch, Mario
Tan, Shawn W.
Yotov, Yoto V.
author_sort Larch, Mario
title A Simple Method to Quantify the ex-ante Effects of 'Deep' Trade Liberalization and 'Hard' Trade Protection
title_short A Simple Method to Quantify the ex-ante Effects of 'Deep' Trade Liberalization and 'Hard' Trade Protection
title_full A Simple Method to Quantify the ex-ante Effects of 'Deep' Trade Liberalization and 'Hard' Trade Protection
title_fullStr A Simple Method to Quantify the ex-ante Effects of 'Deep' Trade Liberalization and 'Hard' Trade Protection
title_full_unstemmed A Simple Method to Quantify the ex-ante Effects of 'Deep' Trade Liberalization and 'Hard' Trade Protection
title_sort simple method to quantify the ex-ante effects of 'deep' trade liberalization and 'hard' trade protection
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2021
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/899351633373629469/A-Simple-Method-to-Quantify-the-ex-ante-Effects-of-Deep-Trade-Liberalization-and-Hard-Trade-Protection
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36342
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