Choose an application

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

Successful export growth and diversification require not only entry into new export products and markets, but also the survival and growth of export flows. This paper uses a detailed, cross-country dataset of product level bilateral export flows to illustrate that exporting is an extremely perilous activity and especially so in low-income countries. The authors find that unobserved individual heterogeneity in product-level export flow data prevails despite controlling for a wide range of observed country and product characteristics. This questions previous studies that have used the Cox proportional hazards model to model export survival. The authors estimate a Prentice-Gloeckler model, amended with a gamma mixture distribution summarizing unobserved individual heterogeneity. The empirical results confirm the significance of a range of products as well as country-specific factors in determining the survival of export flows. From a policy perspective, an interesting finding is the importance of learning-by-doing for export survival: experience with exporting the same product to other markets or different products to the same market are found to strongly increase the chance of export survival. A better understanding of such learning effects could substantially improve the effectiveness of export promotion strategies.

Adverse impacts --- Bilateral trade --- Currencies and Exchange Rates --- Debt Markets --- Econometric analysis --- Economic size --- Economic Theory and Research --- Emerging Markets --- Export growth --- Exports --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Fixed costs --- Free Trade --- Income --- Income groups --- Income levels --- Inequality --- International Economics and Trade --- International trade --- Law and Justice --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Markets and Market Access --- Overvaluation --- Poverty Reduction --- Private Sector Development --- Product differentiation --- Production costs --- Purchasing power --- Tax Law --- Technical assistance --- Trade Law --- Trade Policy --- Trade policy --- Transition economies --- Unemployment --- Wealth

Choose an application

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

In recent years, there have been major changes in the trade policy landscape in West Africa that will affect Senegal. The Common External Tariff (CET) for (ECOWAS) and European Union-Economic Partnership Agreement (EU-EPA) have generated an intense debate among policy makers, interest groups and the general population. The CET aims at the establishment of a customs union for ECOWAS countries through the adoption of a common external tariff and a common trade policy vis-A-vis third countries.' It was adopted at a Heads of State Summit in October 2013 in Dakar and is to be implemented from 2015. When initially designed in the mid-2000s, the CET was organized in four tariff bands: 0 percent for essential social goods, 5 percent for goods of primary necessity, raw materials and specific inputs, 10 percent for intermediate goods and 20 percent for final consumption goods. Since then, Nigeria has obtained the introduction of a fifth band at 35 percent for specific goods for economic development' (essentially agricultural goods and some consumer goods). The first section of the paper presents an analysis of the impact of the CET and EU-EPA on protection levels, trade flows and state revenues, changes in the price of the consumption bundles for households and impact on firm's profits. The second section underlines some key elements of an accompanying policy agenda and a third section concludes.

Access to Finance --- Competition --- Competitiveness and Competition Policy --- Export Competitiveness --- Private Sector Development --- Trade Policy

Choose an application

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

TRIST is a simple, easy to use tool to assess the adjustment implications of trade reform. It improves on existing tools. First, it is an improvement in terms of accuracy because projections are based on revenues actually collected at the tariff line level rather than simply applying statutory rates. Second, it is transparent and open; runs in Excel, with formulas and calculation steps visible to the user; and is open-source and users are free to change, extend, or improve according to their needs. Third, TRIST has greater policy relevance because it projects the impact of tariff reform on total fiscal revenue (including VAT and excise) and results are broken down to the product level so that sensitive products or sectors can be identified. And fourth, the tool is flexible and can incorporate tariff liberalization scenarios involving any group of trading partners and any schedules of products. This paper describes the TRIST tool and provides a range of examples that demonstrate the insights that the tool can provide to policy makers on the adjustment impacts of reducing tariffs.

Currencies and Exchange Rates --- Customs --- Customs duties --- Debt Markets --- Developing countries --- Domestic production --- Economic Theory and Research --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Free Trade --- Free trade --- Import regimes --- Imports --- International Economics & Trade --- International trade --- International Trade and Trade Rules --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Multilateral trade reform --- Public Sector Development --- Regional trade agreements --- Tariff exemptions --- Tariff line --- Tariff reform --- Trade diversion --- Trade model --- Trade policy --- Trade policy reform --- Trade reform --- Trade reforms --- Trade regime