Abstract | Keywords | Export | Availability | Bookmark

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This paper describes the Services Trade Policy Database, a joint initiative by the World Bank and the World Trade Organization Secretariat, which builds on a database developed by the World Bank nearly 10 years ago and draws on a recent Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development database. The Services Trade Policy Database offers comparable information on services trade policies for 68 economies in 23 subsectors across five broad areas - financial services, telecommunications, distribution, transportation, and professional services. The database features several improvements. First, the data are collected according to a newly developed policy classification, consistent with the earlier World Bank database and the current Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development database, enabling a comparison of services policies over a significant period and across a large cross-section of industrial and developing economies. Second, in addition to trade policies, the database contains information on licensing conditions and data restrictions. Third, policy restrictiveness is quantified following a more systematic approach that aggregates the information within a single consistent and transparent framework. Building on these innovations will make it possible to identify global patterns of services trade policies and secular trends in policy making over the past decade.

Distribution --- Financial Services --- International Economics and Trade --- International Trade and Trade Rules --- Investment --- Professional Services --- Services Trade --- Services Trade Policy Database --- Telecommunications --- Trade and Services --- Trade and Transport --- Trade In Services --- Trade Policy --- Trade Restrictions --- Transportation --- World Trade Organization