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Trade Agreements, Regulatory Institutions and Services Liberalization
Author(s) -
Fiorini Matteo,
Hoekman Bernard
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
global policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.602
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1758-5899
pISSN - 1758-5880
DOI - 10.1111/1758-5899.12583
Subject(s) - liberalization , scope (computer science) , international economics , free trade , business , trade in services , trade barrier , productivity , international trade , general agreement on trade in services , welfare , quality (philosophy) , market access , commercial policy , economics , market economy , economic growth , agriculture , ecology , philosophy , epistemology , computer science , biology , programming language
Many agreements to liberalize trade in services tend to be limited in scope. This is a puzzle considering the high share of services in total employment and value added and relatively high barriers to trade in services in many countries. In this paper we argue that neglected complementarities between services trade policies and domestic regulation may help to understand the limited ambition on services observed in many trade agreements. We show that the productivity effects of services trade liberalization are conditional on regulatory quality. Our findings suggest that greater effort to design trade agreements with a view to improving regulatory quality may be a necessary condition for deepening the services coverage of trade agreements and will enhance the welfare gains from services trade liberalization.