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June 1999 - Is there a strong case for developing countries to support the creation of a multilateral agreement on investment? Probably not. Existing agreements offer ample scope for liberalizing foreign direct investment in the area that matters most to developing countries: services. Hoekman and Saggi evaluate the potential benefits of international disciplines on policies toward foreign direct investment for developing countries. They conclude that the case for initiating negotiations on investment policies is weak, at present. Negotiating efforts that center on further liberalizing market access on a nondiscriminatory basis-especially for services-are likely to be more fruitful in terms of economic welfare and growth. Existing multilateral instruments, although imperfect, are far from fully exploited and provide significant opportunities for governments opening further access to markets. Hoekman and Saggi conclude that priority should be given to expanding coverage of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) before seeking to negotiate general disciplines on investment policies. This paper-a product of Trade, Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the group to prepare for the next round of WTO negotiations. The authors may be contacted at bhoekman@worldbank.org or ksaggi @mail.smu.edu.

Costs --- Debt Markets --- Economic Theory and Research --- Economics --- Economy --- Emerging Markets --- Expectations --- Exports --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Foreign Direct Investment --- Free Trade --- Goods --- Incentives --- International Economics & Trade --- Investment --- Investment and Investment Climate --- Labor Policies --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Markets --- Multilateral Trade --- Non Bank Financial Institutions --- Payments --- Positive Externalities --- Private Sector Development --- Public Sector Corruption and Anticorruption Measures --- Risk Averse --- Social Protections and Labor --- Subsidy --- Trade and Regional Integration --- Trade Negotiations --- Transactions Costs --- Value --- Value Added --- Welfare --- WTO

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India has pursued an active food security policy for many years, using a combination of trade policy interventions, public distribution of food staples, and assistance to farmers through minimum support prices defended by public stocks. This policy has been quite successful in stabilizing staple food prices, but at a high cost, and with potential risks of unmanageable stock accumulation. Based on a rational expectations storage model representing the Indian wheat market and its relation to the rest of the world, this paper analyzes the cost and welfare implications of this policy and unpacks the contribution of its different elements. To analyze alternative policies, social welfare is assumed to include an objective of price stabilization and optimal policies corresponding to this objective are assessed. Considering fully optimal policies under commitment as well as optimal simple rules, it is shown that adopting simple rules can achieve most of the gains from fully optimal policies, with both potentially allowing for lower stockholding levels and costs.

Accelerator --- Access to Markets --- Aggregate Demand --- Agriculture --- Arbitrage --- Barriers --- Benchmark --- Bidding --- Border Price --- Cash Flow --- Choice --- Closed Economy --- Commodity --- Commodity Price --- Communication --- Consumer Price --- Consumer Price Index --- Consumers --- Consumption --- Costs --- Criteria --- Debt Markets --- Demand --- Demand Elasticity --- Demand Function --- Development Economics --- Development Policy --- Distribution --- Domestic Market --- Domestic Price --- Econometrics --- Economic Theory --- Economic Theory & Research --- Economics Research --- Elasticity --- Emerging Markets --- Equations --- Equilibrium --- Equilibrium Values --- Exchange --- Exchange Rate --- Expectations --- Exports --- Failures --- Fair --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Floor Price --- Food Price --- Fraud --- Free Trade --- Incentives --- Income --- Incomplete Markets --- Influence --- Inputs --- Interest --- Interest Rate --- International Economics & Trade --- International Trade --- Lags --- Laissez Faire --- Laissez-Faire --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Marginal Cost --- Marginal Utility --- Market --- Market Conditions --- Market Economy --- Market Equilibrium --- Market Failures --- Market Power --- Market Price --- Marketing --- Markets --- Markets & Market Access --- Middle-Income Country --- Multipliers --- Open Economy --- Opportunity Cost --- Optimization --- Outcomes --- Output --- Price --- Price Behavior --- Price Change --- Price Elasticity --- Price Index --- Price Instability --- Price Levels --- Price Movements --- Price Policy --- Price Risk --- Price Stability --- Price Stabilization --- Price Uncertainty --- Price Volatility --- Prices --- Private Entity --- Private Sector Development --- Producer Price --- Product --- Production --- Profit Maximization --- Public Policy --- Purchasing --- Rapid Expansion --- Real Income --- Risk Aversion --- Risk Neutral --- Risk-Averse --- Risk-Neutral --- Sales --- Savings --- Security --- Share --- Stabilization Policy --- Stock --- Storage --- Subsidy --- Substitution --- Supply --- Supply Elasticity --- Surplus --- Taxes --- Theory --- Time Value of Money --- Trade --- Trade Barriers --- Trade Policies --- Trade Policy --- Trends --- Utility --- Value --- Value of Money --- Variables --- Volatility --- Welfare --- World Market --- World Trade