[go: up one dir, main page]

IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/3193.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Quantifying the impact of services liberalization in a developing country

Author

Listed:
  • Konan, Denise Eby
  • Maskus, Keith E.
Abstract
The authors consider how service liberalization differs from goods liberalization in terms of welfare, the level and composition of output, and factor prices within a developing economy, in this case Tunisia. Despite recent movements toward liberalization, Tunisian service sectors remain largely closed to foreign participation and are provided at high cost relative to many developing nations. The authors develop a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model of the Tunisian economy with multiple products and services and three trading partners. They model goods liberalization as the unilateral removal of product tariffs. Restraints on services trade involve both restrictions on cross-border supply (mode 1 in the GATS) and on foreign ownership through foreign direct investment (mode 3 in the GATS). The former are modeled as tariff-equivalent price wedges while the latter are comprised of both monopoly-rent distortions (arising from imperfect competition among domestic producers) andinefficiency costs (arising from a failure of domestic service providers to adopt least-cost practices). They find that goods-trade liberalization yields a gain in aggregate welfare and reorients production toward sectors of benchmark comparative advantage. However, a reduction of services barriers in a way that permits greater competition through foreign direct investment generates larger welfare gains. Service liberalization also requires lower adjustment costs, measured in terms of sectoral movement of workers, than does goods-trade liberalization. And it tends to increase economic activity in all sectors and raise the real returns to both capital and labor. The overall welfare gains of comprehensive service liberalization amount to more than 5 percent of initial consumption. The bulk of these gains come from opening markets for finance, business services, and telecommunications. Because these are key inputs into all sectors of the economy, their liberalization cuts costs and drives larger efficiency gains overall. The results point to the potential importance of deregulating services provision for economic development.

Suggested Citation

  • Konan, Denise Eby & Maskus, Keith E., 2003. "Quantifying the impact of services liberalization in a developing country," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3193, The World Bank.
  • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3193
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2004/02/04/000012009_20040204152855/Rendered/PDF/WPS3193.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sherman Robinson & Zhi Wang & Will Martin, 2002. "Capturing the Implications of Services Trade Liberalization," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 3-33.
    2. Jaime de MELO & Sherman ROBINSON, 2015. "Product Differentiation And The Treatment Of Foreign Trade In Computable General Equilibrium Models Of Small Economies," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Modeling Developing Countries' Policies in General Equilibrium, chapter 2, pages 21-41, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    3. Philippa Dee & Kevin Hanslow, 2013. "Multilateral Liberalization of Services Trade," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Services Trade Reform Making Sense of It, chapter 4, pages 69-95, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    4. repec:bla:rdevec:v:1:y:1997:i:3:p:275-93 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Francois, Joseph & Wooton, Ian, 2001. "Market structure, trade liberalization and the GATS," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 389-402, June.
    6. Markusen, James R, 1989. "Trade in Producer Services and in Other Specialized Intermediate Inputs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(1), pages 85-95, March.
    7. Hoekman, Bernard, 1995. "Tentative First Steps: An Assessment of the Uruguay Round Agreement on Services," CEPR Discussion Papers 1150, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Drusilla K. Brown & Robert M. Stern, 2001. "Measurement and Modeling of the Economic Effects of Trade and Investment Barriers in Services," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(2), pages 262-286, May.
    9. Rim Chatti, 2000. "General Equilibrium Assessment of Trade Liberalization Effects under Cournot Oligopoly Market Structures: The Case of Tunisia," Working Papers 2009, Economic Research Forum, revised 03 2000.
    10. Hertel, Thomas, 1997. "Global Trade Analysis: Modeling and applications," GTAP Books, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University, number 7685, December.
    11. Thomas F. Rutherford & David G. Tarr, 2017. "Trade liberalization, product variety and growth in a small open economy: a quantitative assessment," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Trade Policies for Development and Transition, chapter 17, pages 389-414, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    12. Markusen, James & Rutherford, Thomas F. & Tarr, David, 2000. "Foreign direct investment in services and the domestic market for expertise," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2413, The World Bank.
    13. John Whalley, 2003. "Liberalization in China's Key Service Sectors Following WTO Accession: Some Scenarios and Issues of Measurement," NBER Working Papers 10143, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Djankov, Simeon & Hoekman, Bernard, 1995. "Catching Up With Eastern Europe? The European Union's Mediterranean Free Trade Initiative," CEPR Discussion Papers 1300, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Romer, Paul, 1994. "New goods, old theory, and the welfare costs of trade restrictions," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 5-38, February.
    16. Konan, Denise Eby & Maskus, Keith E., 2000. "Joint trade liberalization and tax reform in a small open economy: the case of Egypt," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 365-392, April.
    17. Keith E. Maskus & Denise Eby Konan, 1997. "Trade Liberalization in Egypt," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 1(3), pages 275-293, October.
    18. repec:bla:reviec:v:9:y:2001:i:2:p:262-86 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Harris, Richard, 1984. "Applied General Equilibrium Analysis of Small Open Economies with Scale Economies and Imperfect Competition," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(5), pages 1016-1032, December.
    20. Deardoff, A.V. & Brown, D.K. & Stern, R.M. & Fox, A.K., 1995. "Computational Analysis of Goods and Services Liberalization in the Uruguay Round," Working Papers 379, Research Seminar in International Economics, University of Michigan.
    21. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2001. "Borders, Trade and Welfare," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 508, Boston College Department of Economics.
    22. Bernard Hoekman, 2000. "The next round of services negotiations: identifying priorities and options," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 82(Jul), pages 31-52.
    23. World Bank, 2004. "Republic of Tunisia - Development Policy Review : Making Deeper Trade Integration Work for Growth and Jobs," World Bank Publications - Reports 15693, The World Bank Group.
    24. Martin,Will & Winters,L. Alan (ed.), 1996. "The Uruguay Round and the Developing Countries," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521586016, September.
    25. Thomas W. Hertel, 2000. "Potential gains from reducing trade barriers in manufacturing, services and agriculture," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 82(Jul), pages 77-104.
    26. Kehoe, Timothy J., 2002. "An Evaluation of the Performance of Applied General Equilibrium Models of the Impact of NAFTA," Conference papers 331066, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    27. repec:bla:worlde:v:23:y:2000:i:04:p:595-611 is not listed on IDEAS
    28. Keith E. Maskus & Mohamed Lahouel, 2000. "Competition Policy and Intellectual Property Rights in Developing Countries," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(4), pages 595-611, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Konan, Denise Eby & Van Assche, Ari, 2007. "Regulation, market structure and service trade liberalization," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 895-923, November.
    2. Tarr, David G., 2013. "Putting Services and Foreign Direct Investment with Endogenous Productivity Effects in Computable General Equilibrium Models," Handbook of Computable General Equilibrium Modeling, in: Peter B. Dixon & Dale Jorgenson (ed.), Handbook of Computable General Equilibrium Modeling, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 303-377, Elsevier.
    3. Elisabeth M. Christen & Joseph Francois & Bernard Hoekman, 2012. "CGE Modeling of Market Access in Services," Economics working papers 2012-08, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    4. Robert M. Stern, 2000. "Quantifying Barriers to Trade in Services," Working Papers 470, Research Seminar in International Economics, University of Michigan.
    5. Gehlhar, Mark & Wainio, John, 2004. "Feasibility of Reducing Agricultural Protection: Implications for Farm Households," Conference papers 331293, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    6. Jesper Jensen & Thomas Rutherford & David Tarr, 2014. "The Impact of Liberalizing Barriers to Foreign Direct Investment in Services: The Case of Russian Accession to the World Trade Organization," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: APPLIED TRADE POLICY MODELING IN 16 COUNTRIES Insights and Impacts from World Bank CGE Based Projects, chapter 6, pages 125-149, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    7. Christen, Elisabeth & Francois, Joseph & Hoekman, Bernard, 2013. "Computable General Equilibrium Modeling of Market Access in Services," Handbook of Computable General Equilibrium Modeling, in: Peter B. Dixon & Dale Jorgenson (ed.), Handbook of Computable General Equilibrium Modeling, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 1601-1643, Elsevier.
    8. George Verikios & Xiao-guang Zhang, 2001. "Global Gains from Liberalising Trade in Telecommunications and Financial Services," Others 0110005, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Rivera, Sandra A. & Tsigas, Marinos E., 2005. "How does China’s growth affect India? An Economywide Analysis," Conference papers 331359, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    10. Bernard Hoekman, 2000. "The next round of services negotiations: identifying priorities and options," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 82(Jul), pages 31-52.
    11. Jensen, Jesper & Rutherford, Thomas & Tarr, David, 2005. "Telecommunications reform within Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3501, The World Bank.
    12. Kym Anderson, 2005. "On the Virtues of Multilateral Trade Negotiations," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 81(255), pages 414-438, December.
    13. Joseph Francois & Miriam Manchin & Patrick Tomberger, 2015. "Services Linkages and the Value Added Content of Trade," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(11), pages 1631-1649, November.
    14. Christoph Boehringer & Edward Balistreri & Thomas Rutherford, 2018. "Quantifying Disruptive Trade Policies," Working Papers V-415-18, University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, revised Nov 2018.
    15. John Whalley, 2004. "Assessing the Benefits to Developing Countries of Liberalisation in Services Trade," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1223-1253, August.
    16. Hiro Lee & Dominique van der Mensbrugghe, 2001. "A General Equilibrium Analysis of the Interplay between Foreign Direct Investment and Trade Adjustments," Discussion Paper Series 119, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University, revised Jul 2001.
    17. Ji Chou & Shiu-Tung Wang & Kun-Ming Chen & Nai-Fong Kuo, 2003. "Taiwan's Accession into the WTO and Trade in Services: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis," NBER Chapters, in: Trade in Services in the Asia-Pacific Region, pages 99-136, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Piermartini, Roberta & Teh, Robert, 2005. "Demystifying modelling methods for trade policy," WTO Discussion Papers 10, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    19. Thomas F. Rutherford & David G. Tarr, 2017. "Trade liberalization, product variety and growth in a small open economy: a quantitative assessment," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Trade Policies for Development and Transition, chapter 17, pages 389-414, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    20. Jensen, Jesper & Tarr, David, 2007. "The impact of Kazakhstan accession to the World Trade Organization : a quantitative assessment," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4142, The World Bank.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Payment Systems&Infrastructure; Environmental Economics&Policies; Decentralization; Economic Theory&Research; Banks&Banking Reform; Economic Theory&Research; Environmental Economics&Policies; TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT; Health Economics&Finance; Banks&Banking Reform;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C72 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Game Theory and Bargaining Theory - - - Noncooperative Games
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • L14 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3193. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.