Download or read book Transportation Infrastructure Investments and Regional Trade Liberalization written by Eric Bond and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1999 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: November 1997 This model predicts that without cooperative infrastructure agreements between countries, there will be underinvestment in those forms of infrastructure in which the investments will have spillover effects to other countries. For a relatively small country, for example, there would tend to be more underinvestment in railroad and highway infrastructure to neighboring countries than there would be in airport and harbor infrastructure (carrying goods to the whole world). Bond examines whether trade liberalization should create a greater incentive for countries to invest in transportation infrastructure. He pays special attention to the case of preferential trade liberalization between neighboring countries, where investments in roads or railroads are specific to the partner country and will thus have spillover effects. The existence of spillovers will lead to gains from cooperative agreements about investment levels. Bond shows that in a small country the incentive to invest in infrastructure depends on the level of the tariff when demand is linear. If protection is in the form of a quota, on the other hand, trade liberalization will increase the optimal infrastructure investment. He shows that in a two-country model with spillovers between countries, the cooperative equilibrium may involve either more or less investment than the noncooperative equilibrium, depending on the pattern of trade between the two countries and the degree of substitutability between investments in the two countries. For a relatively small country, for example, there would be more underinvestment in railroad and highway infrastructure to neighboring countries than there would be in airport and harbor infrastructure. The first type of investment is specific to certain markets and is likely to affect the relative price of goods in those markets. The second type of investment, on the other hand, will send goods to world markets generally, where prices are likely to be relatively unaffected by the investments. Bond also examines the desirability of linking regional trade and infrastructure agreements. The prediction generated by his model is that in the absence of cooperative agreements between countries, there will be underinvestment in those forms of transportation in which the investments will have spillover effects to other countries. Bond identifies two forms of gains from infrastructure agreements: * Internalizing the terms-of-trade effects and thus avoiding the inefficient investment levels that arise in noncooperative choices of investment levels. * Internalizing the effects of the infrastructure investment in the tariff negotiation process, in cases where countries cannot commit to future tariff rates. This paper-a product of the Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the group to understand regionalism and development.

Download or read book Impact of Transport Infrastructure Investment on Regional Development written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2002-05-23 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report describes evaluation methods for transport infrastructure investments to ensure that scarce resources are allocated in a way that maximises their net return to society.

Download or read book Infrastructure s Role in Lowering Asia s Trade Costs written by Douglas H. Brooks and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2009-01-30 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much of the analysis of infrastructure's impact on trade costs focuses on conditions in developed countries. This book makes an invaluable contribution to our understanding by examining the situation in developing Asia, the world's most populous and fastest growing region. This study analyzes and draws policy implications from infrastructure's central role in lowering Asia's trade costs. Infrastructure is shown to be a cost-effective means of lowering trade costs and thereby promoting regional growth and integration. This book combines thematic and country studies, while breaking new ground in.

Download or read book Liberalizing Trade in Services written by Bernard M. Hoekman and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2006 with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: Since the mid 1980s a substantial amount of research has been undertaken on trade in services. Much of this is inspired by the World Trade Organization or regional trade agreements, especially the European Union, but an increasing number of papers focus on the impacts of services sector liberalization. This paper surveys the literature, focusing on contributions that investigate the determinants of international trade and investment in services, the potential gains from greater trade (and liberalization), and efforts to cooperate to achieve such liberalization through trade agreements. It concludes that there is increasing evidence that services liberalization is an important source of potential welfare gains, but relatively little research has been done that can inform the design of international cooperation-both trade agreements and development assistance-so as to more effectively promote development objectives.

Download or read book Transport Trade and Economic Growth Coupled Or Decoupled written by Irene Feige and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-05-03 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book combines approaches from economics as well as business administration to stimulate scientific discourse and support decision-makers. The first part of the book examines the relationship between transport and economic growth, and specifically, whether "decoupling" of transport and economic growth appears possible. Previously unavailable regional data for Italy and Germany were collected and analyzed. The results indicate that transport makes an important contribution to economic growth.

Download or read book 3 1 PICHIA GUILLIERMONDII written by Amos Avraham and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Impact of Transport Infrastructure Investment on Regional Development written by and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Regional Integration and Development written by Maurice W. Schiff and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2003 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text examines regionalism from the perspective of developing countries. It presents a comprehensive account of existing theory and empirical results and incorporates the findings of formal analyses ofthe politics and dynamics of regionalism.

Download or read book Outsiders and Regional Trade Agreements Among Small Countries written by Anju Gupta and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1997 with total page 37 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: November 1997 Regional trade agreements among small countries may have negative welfare implications for nearby countries excluded from the agreement--but they sometimes benefit from being excluded. Standard theory says that a country's welfare is unaffected by being excluded from a small regional trade agreement. But for most products, small countries and regional trade agreements do have some measure of market power. Such market power can arise if (1) supply is geographically concentrated; (2) tastes differ; (3) there is product differentiation (such as quality); (4) transport costs are high; (5) the principal importing countries impose quantitative restrictions; and (6) there is hysterisis because of irreversible costs. The authors show, based on two case studies, that regional trade agreements among small countries may have negative welfare implications for outside countries. In the first case, they find that Argentina's cattle and beef exports to Peru fell when Peru formed a regional trade agreement (the Andean Pact) with various countries, including Colombia, and exporter of the same products. Argentina also lost because of the higher unit price it received on its exports to Peru. Interestingly, Venezuela's entry into the Andean Pact (that is, the formation of a larger bloc) seems to have resulted in a welfare gain for the outside country (Argentina). In the second case, rather than examine whether formation of the Central American Common Market (CACM) had a negative impact on outside countries (for which they lacked data), they examine the impact of the CACM's breakdown on member countries. Although the CACM has essentially been trade-diverting for manufactures, it seems to have been trade-creating for white maize, with both importing and exporting member countries gaining from the regional trade agreement. So, one would expect that a breakdown of the CACM, which resulted in member countries becoming relatively more outsiders to the bloc, may have led to a decline in the welfare of both the exporting and importing member countries. This is supported by the data, and implies that if one of the five member countries had been left out of the CACM, it would have been worse off where white maize was concerned. This paper--aproduct of the Development Research Group--is part of background work for the group's program on regionalism and development.

Download or read book Infrastructure for a Seamless Asia written by Asian Development Bank and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study examines major challenges and issues associated with developing regional infrastructure through the fostering of regional cooperation in Asia, and provides a framework for pan-Asian infrastructure cooperation. The study's long-term vision is the creation of a seamless Asia (an integrated region connected by world-class, environmentally friendly infrastructure) in terms of both "hard" (physical) and "soft" (facilitating) infrastructure. The soft part supports the development and operation of the hard component. Findings indicate that the benefits of upgrading and extending Asia's infrastructure networks are substantial, and that all countries in the region would benefit. A logistics network is only as good as its weakest link; each country in a regional supply chain gains from infrastructure improvements made in others. Improving connectivity in the region would bring Asia large welfare gains through increased market access, reduced trade costs, and more efficient energy production and use. According to the study, to achieve this Asia needs to invest approximately $8 trillion in overall national infrastructure between 2010 and 2020. In addition, Asia needs to spend approximately $290 billion on specific regional infrastructure projects in transport and energy that are already in the pipeline

Download or read book Does Membership in a Regional Preferential Trade Arrangement Make a Country More Or Less Protectionist written by Faezeh Foroutan and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1998 with total page 43 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: March 1998 It seems participation in a regional trade agreement does not necessarily lead to a more liberal import regime. Foroutan explores whether a systematic relationship exists between a developing country's participation in a preferential regional trade agreement (RTA) and the restrictiveness of its trade regime. The motivation for her study is provided by the current debate about whether regional trading blocs are a stepping-stone toward a more liberal global trading system and whether these blocs have changed over time so that the new blocs differ meaningfully from the old ones in terms of openness to the rest of the world. She restricts analysis to reciprocal RTAs involving developing countries in partnership either with industrial countries (North-South RTAs) or with other developing countries (South-South RTAs). Nearly every developing country belongs to one or more RTAs, so Foroutan develops criteria for distinguishing effective from noneffective regional blocs. She then taps into many sources of data to compare levels of restrictiveness. She finds no evidence that participation in a regional trade agreement necessarily leads to a more liberal import regime. This paper-a product of International Trade, Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the group to study preferential trade issues. The author may be contacted at [email protected].

Download or read book Government Support to Private Infrastructure Projects in Emerging Markets written by Mansoor Dailami and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1998 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: January 1998 For citizens to reap the full benefits of private investment in infrastructure, infrastructure prices must be high enough to cover costs, and private investors must assume commercial risk. Good macroeconomic policy matters because it affects the credibility of a price regime and especially the trust in currency convertibility essential for foreign investors. Driven by fiscal austerity and disenchantment with the performance of state-provided infrastructure services, many governments have turned to the private sector to build, operate, finance, or own infrastructure in power, gas, water, transport, and telecommunications sectors. Private capital flows to developing countries are increasing rapidly; 15 percent of infrastructure investment is now funded by private capital in emerging markets. But relative to needs, such private investment is progressing slowly. Governments are reluctant to raise consumer prices to cost-covering levels, while investors, mindful of experience, fear that governments may renege on promises to maintain adequate prices over the long haul. So investors ask for government support in the form of grants, preferential tax treatment, debt or equity contributions, or guarantees. These subsidies differ in how they allocate risk between private investors and government. Efficiency gains are greatest when private parties assume the risks that they can manage better than the public sector. When governments establish good policies-especially cost-covering prices and credible commitments to stick to them-investors are willing to invest without special government support. Privatizing assets without government guarantees or other financial support is possible, even where governments are politically unable to raise prices, because investors can achieve the returns they demand by discounting the value of the assets they are purchasing. But this is not possible for new investments (greenfield projects). If prices have been set too low and the government is not willing to raise them, it must give the investor financial support, such as guarantees and other forms of subsidy, to facilitate worthwhile projects that would not otherwise proceed. But guarantees shift costs from consumers to taxpayers, who subsidize users of infrastructure services. Much of that subsidy is hidden, since the government does not record the guarantee in its fiscal accounts. And taxpayers provide unremunerated credit insurance, as the government borrows based on its ability to tax citizens if the project fails, not on the strength of the project itself. This paper-a joint product of the Regulatory Reform and Private Enterprise Division, Economic Development Institute, and the Private Participation in Infrastructure Group-was presented at the conference Managing Government Exposure to Private Infrastructure Projects: Averting a New-Style Debt Crisis, held in Cartagena, Colombia, May 29030, 1997. Mansoor Dailami may be contacted at [email protected].

Download or read book Regulatory Tradeoffs in Designing Concession Contracts for Infrastructure Networks written by Claude Crampes and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1997 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Lessons from S o Paulo s Metropolitan Busway Concessions Program written by Jorge Mariano Rebelo and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1997 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Risk Reduction and Public Spending written by Shantayanan Devarajan and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1998 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: January 1998 Government spending on risk reduction could improve welfare in developing economies, either by alleviating a risk-market failure or by reducing uncertainty in otherwise distorted markets. As governments grow richer, the share of their GDP devoted to public spending rises. Public spending in the United States was 7.5 percent of GDP in 1913. It is 33 percent today. Although industrial countries spend twice as much as developing countries, government spending on goods and services is the same in both groups of countries. The difference is almost entirely due to transfer payments, which are about 22 percent of GDP in the industrial world. Most of these transfer payments-pensions, health insurance, unemployment insurance, guaranteed loans-are aimed at mitigating risk in the private sector. Devarajan and Hammer explore how the framework for evaluating government spending on goods and services can be extended to incorporate the government's various risk-reducing activities. They argue that there is a case for incorporating risk reduction into government spending, if doing so meets standard welfare-economics criteria for government intervention in the economy. Through examples-government-provided health insurance and crop insurance, price stabilization schemes, transfer programs for income support, public investments, publicly provided health care, and government credit guarantees-they show where government spending on risk reduction could improve welfare, either by alleviating a failure in risk markets or by reducing uncertainty in otherwise distorted markets. They illustrate calculations of the risk-reduction benefits of public spending and cite cases where their neglect could lead to serious underestimates. This paper-a product of Public Economics, Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the group to improve the allocation of public expenditures in developing countries. The authors may be contacted at [email protected] or [email protected].

Download or read book Circumstance and Choice written by and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1997 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Gender Disparity in South Asia written by Deon Filmer and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1998 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: January 1998 While gender disparities in health and education outcomes are higher on average in South Asian than in other countries, the large within country differences in gender disparity, between Indian states or Pakistani provinces, demand more local explanations. Using data assembled from the Demographic Health Surveys of over 50 countries and from the National Family Health Surveys of individual states in India, Filmer, King, and Pritchett create a new data set of comparable indicators of gender disparity. They establish three findings: As is by now well-known, the level of gender disparities in health and education outcomes for girls in South Asia is the highest in the world. Even within South Asia, and within India or Pakistan, there are huge variations in gender disparity. Differences in gender disparity among Indian states or among provinces of Pakistan are typically greater than those among the world's nations. The ratio of female to male child mortality in one Indian state (Haryana) is worse than in any country in the world, although in another state (Tamil Nadu) it is lower than in all but three countries. Across and within the set of developing nations, gender disparity is not only a phenomenon of poverty. There is almost no correlation between per capita income and the gender disparities in health and education outcomes. So although absolute levels of health and education outcomes for girls are strongly related to economic conditions, the disparities between outcomes for girls and boys are not. Understanding what causes such great gender disparity within South Asia is the next pressing question for researchers. This paper-a product of Poverty and Human Resources, Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the group to understand the determinants of gender differentials. The study was funded by the Bank's Research Support Budget under the research project Explaining Gender Disparity in South Asia (RPO 681-29). The authors may be contacted at [email protected] or [email protected].