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Regulatory barriers to trade in services: A new database and composite indices
Author(s) -
Benz Sebastian,
Ferencz Janos,
Nordås Hildegunn K.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the world economy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.594
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1467-9701
pISSN - 0378-5920
DOI - 10.1111/twec.13032
Subject(s) - restrictiveness , general agreement on trade in services , trade in services , consolidation (business) , market access , competition (biology) , broadband , business , economics , insolvency , financial services , international economics , international trade , industrial organization , trade barrier , finance , free trade , telecommunications , computer science , ecology , philosophy , linguistics , biology , agriculture
This paper presents new data on services trade regulation for 46 countries in 22 services sectors over 6 years (2014–2019). The data consist of qualitative information which is scored and weighted to produce composite indices. They cover market access and national treatment restrictions with respect to all GATS modes of supply, but also behind the border domestic regulation such as licensing, non‐transparent regulatory procedures and competition policy. The database is updated annually. The trade restrictiveness indices (STRIs) are significantly correlated with services trade flows, but also with the performance of the sectors subject to the restrictions including logistics performance indicators, interest spreads, density of ATMs and secure servers, broadband penetration and outcomes such as legal rights and the time to resolve insolvency.