Landlocked or Policy Locked? How Services Trade Protection DeepensEconomic Isolation

Borchert, Ingo ; Gootiiz, Batshur ; Grover, Arti ; Mattoo, Aaditya

关键词: ACCESSIBILITY;    ACCOUNTABILITY;    ACCOUNTING;    ADVERSE EFFECT;    ADVERSE IMPACT;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-5942
RP-ID  :  WPS5942

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

A new cross-country database on servicespolicy reveals a perverse pattern: many landlocked countriesrestrict trade in the very services that connect them withthe rest of the world. On average, telecommunications andair-transport policies are significantly more restrictive inlandlocked countries than elsewhere. The phenomenon is moststarkly visible in Sub-Saharan Africa and is associated withlower levels of political accountability. This paper findsevidence that these policies lead to more concentratedmarket structures and more limited access to services thanthese countries would otherwise have, even after taking intoaccount the influence of geography and incomes, and thepossibility that policy is endogenous. Even moderateliberalization in these sectors could lead to an increase ofcellular subscriptions by 7 percentage points and a20-percent increase in the number of flights. Policies inother countries, industrial and developing alike, also limitcompetition in international transport services. Hence,"trade-facilitating" investments under various"aid-for-trade" initiatives are likely to earn alow return unless they are accompanied by meaningful reformin these services sectors.