This paper is the first one to show the effects of services regulations on downstream firms in the goods and services sectors in a multiple-country setting using firm-level data.
... See More + The study selected a group of countries that are economically relatively services-oriented and show varying degrees of services regulations over time, namely the European Union. The paper employs four alternative firm-level measures of total factor productivity that have recently been developed in the economics literature and provide robust conclusions. Overall, the results suggest that regulatory barriers in services have diverse effects on downstream manufacturing performance, depending on the type of regulatory measure in question. The policy variables are split into pure entry barriers and those that relate to the anti-competitive policies on the operations of the firm, which the paper calls conduct regulations. The latter appear to play the most important role in explaining downstream performance across services and goods firms. Furthermore, the results show that regulations matter significantly more in the cases when a country is institutionally weak, an industry is considered as relatively close to the technology frontier, or a firm is foreign owned.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7919 DEC 15, 2016
Van Der Marel,Erik Leendert; Kren,Janez; Iootty De Paiva Dias,MarianaDisclosed
Globalization is creating many new trade and growth opportunities, with services trade increasingly becoming an issue for export-oriented economies.
... See More + Services are important to country trade strategies, because they represent activities in which countries may have a comparative advantage, and they are drivers of competitiveness for the whole economy. This paper uses data from the World Development Indicators, two new databases (the Export in Value-Added database from the Global Trade Analysis Project, and Trade in Services data), and firm-level data. The paper employs a wide range of indicators to analyze the trade competitiveness of the services sector in the Russian Federation. Since service exports are less than would be expected considering Russia's level of development, the study finds that the contribution of services to export diversification could be heightened significantly. The scale of Russian business services exports is relatively low, although exports of traditional services, like transport and travel, are performing well. Despite the relatively minor importance of exports of modern services, the category of other business services has in recent years been growing fast, and business services have strengthened their revealed comparative advantages. Yet Russia still has much potential for expanding trade in modern services. There is also potential to diversify services exports to other markets, such as France, Germany, Japan, and elsewhere in Asia, which today seems underexploited. Finally, although exports of direct services are low, services such as transport, distribution, finance, and other business services are making major contributions to other exports, in particular energy.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7827 SEP 19, 2016
Saez,Juan Sebastian; Van Der Marel,Erik LeendertDisclosed
This report explores the sectors that will be instrumental for positive CU impact and competitiveness in the medium term. The initial chapter analyzes the gaps and opportunities the Kyrgyz NQI presents for capturing benefits of access to the enlarged common market across sectors.
... See More + The next three chapters take an in-depth look at three high-growth sectors and identify adaptation priorities and opportunities. Agriculture, services, and garments are a large and growing share of exports and are the sectors most likely to be transformed by accession to the CU and the increased tariffs to countries outside the EEU. Services added 56 percent to GDP in 2013, while agriculture contributed 18 percent, and manufacturing 16 percent. Exports in the garment sector were close to US$200 million in 2013, employing over 150,000 workers. The main findings of each chapter are summarized below followed by a summary of recommendations. This report is relevant to the Kyrgyz experience as it highlights important differences both in terms of regulations and technical requirements. The report highlights differences between the EU and CU regulatory systems in approaches to food safety and legislation, but it also analyzes the differences in infrastructure aspects of the NQI, such as testing laboratories and certification mechanisms between the EU and CU. The Customs Union approach is based on end-product compliance to a specific technical regulation or standard, whereas the European Union relies on preventive measures and minimizing risks associated with each process throughout the complete food chain. In the CU food control system, food control bodies verify that the end-product meets the required technical specifications established by the government; in the EU system, end-product attributes such as size, color, shape, smell, and taste are generally left to the marketplace to judge if they are acceptable. Importantly, the report pinpoints specific technical requirements for EU food safety that differ from the CU requirements (microbiological criteria for foodstuff, contaminants in food; maximum residue limits for residues of pesticides, and pharmacologically active substances).
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Working Paper 104735 MAR 01, 2016
Choi,Jieun; Saez,Juan Sebastian; Portugal Perez,Luis Alberto; Myburgh,Andrew Christopher; Van Der Marel,Erik Leendert; Molinuevo,Martin; Costantino,Lorenzo; Tynaev,Nurlanbek; Osavolyuk,Serhiy; Pasheva,VanyaEnglishDisclosed
This report explores the sectors that will be instrumental for positive CU impact and competitiveness in the medium term. The initial chapter analyzes the gaps and opportunities the Kyrgyz NQI presents for capturing benefits of access to the enlarged common market across sectors.
... See More + The next three chapters take an in-depth look at three high-growth sectors and identify adaptation priorities and opportunities. Agriculture, services, and garments are a large and growing share of exports and are the sectors most likely to be transformed by accession to the CU and the increased tariffs to countries outside the EEU. Services added 56 percent to GDP in 2013, while agriculture contributed 18 percent, and manufacturing 16 percent. Exports in the garment sector were close to US$200 million in 2013, employing over 150,000 workers. The main findings of each chapter are summarized below followed by a summary of recommendations. This report is relevant to the Kyrgyz experience as it highlights important differences both in terms of regulations and technical requirements. The report highlights differences between the EU and CU regulatory systems in approaches to food safety and legislation, but it also analyzes the differences in infrastructure aspects of the NQI, such as testing laboratories and certification mechanisms between the EU and CU. The Customs Union approach is based on end-product compliance to a specific technical regulation or standard, whereas the European Union relies on preventive measures and minimizing risks associated with each process throughout the complete food chain. In the CU food control system, food control bodies verify that the end-product meets the required technical specifications established by the government; in the EU system, end-product attributes such as size, color, shape, smell, and taste are generally left to the marketplace to judge if they are acceptable. Importantly, the report pinpoints specific technical requirements for EU food safety that differ from the CU requirements (microbiological criteria for foodstuff, contaminants in food; maximum residue limits for residues of pesticides, and pharmacologically active substances).
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Working Paper 104735 MAR 01, 2016
Choi,Jieun; Saez,Juan Sebastian; Portugal Perez,Luis Alberto; Myburgh,Andrew Christopher; Van Der Marel,Erik Leendert; Molinuevo,Martin; Costantino,Lorenzo; Tynaev,Nurlanbek; Osavolyuk,Serhiy; Pasheva,VanyaDisclosed
In May 2015, the Kyrgyz Republic became a member of the Eurasian Customs Union (CU), comprising Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Armenia; it also joined the Common Economic Space (CES), which introduced, free movement of goods, services, capital, and labor between members in 2012.
... See More + The government of the Kyrgyz Republic (GoK) has been making substantial progress along the accession road map in terms of harmonizing technical and sanitary regulations, transport and infrastructure, financial policies, tariff and nontariff regulations, and customs administration, among other areas. This report explores the sectors that will be instrumental for positive CU impact and competitiveness in the medium term. The initial chapter analyzes the gaps and opportunities the Kyrgyz National Quality Infrastructure (NQI) presents for capturing benefits of access to the enlarged common market across sectors. The next three chapters take an in-depth look at three high-growth sectors and identify adaptation priorities and opportunities. Agriculture, services, and garments are a large and growing share of exports and are the sectors most likely to be transformed by accession to the CU and the increased tariffs to countries outside the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). Services added 56 percent to Gross domestic product (GDP) in 2013, while agriculture contributed 18 percent, and manufacturing 16 percent. Exports in the garment sector were close to 200 million US dollars in 2013, employing over 150,000 workers. The main findings of each chapter are summarized followed by a summary of recommendations.
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Working Paper 106854 JUN 01, 2015
Choi,Jieun; Saez,Sebastian; Portugal,Alberto; Myburgh,Andrew Christopher; Van Der Marel,Erik Leendert; Molinuevo,NMartin; Costantino,Lorenzo; Tynaev,Nurlanbek; Osavolyuk,Serhiy; Pasheva,VanyaDisclosed
The Service Trade Competitiveness Diagnostic (STDC) Toolkit is part of a larger agenda of trade competitiveness work developed by the World Bank's International Trade Unit in recent years.
... See More + Services are a key input in countries' trade competitiveness, as well as a new source of trade diversification, making it critical to understand what factors and main constraints matter most for services competitiveness. The Toolkit provides a framework, guidelines, and set of practical tools to conduct a thorough analysis and diagnostic of trade competitiveness in the services sector with a methodology that sheds light on a country's ability both to export services and improve its export performance through policy change. This Toolkit is designed to be used in a modular way. Either a full country diagnostic can be undertaken or various parts of the toolkit can be used to address specific questions of interest, whether they pertain to existing services performance, the potential for expansion and growth in services trade, or policy options to increase competitiveness in services trade. The output of an STCD can be used to assess either the overall performance of a country's services sector or the performance of individual sub-sectors. This Toolkit complements the analytical framework for trade in goods provided by the Trade Competitiveness Diagnostic Toolkit (World Bank, 2012), and allows policymakers and experts in developing countries to better integrate services into their overall trade strategies. In addition, it will also be of interest to international organizations and development practitioners in both policymaking institutions and academia.
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Publication 93714 JAN 14, 2015
Hollweg,Claire Honore; Van Der Marel,Erik Leendert; Saez,Juan Sebastian; Taglioni,Daria; Zavacka,VeronikaDisclosed
This paper uses a theoretically grounded model of international trade to estimate the cross-border tradability of services. The resulting indices cover up to 99 countries and ten sectors.
... See More + The results show that information and communications technology capital and legal institutions are particularly important determinants of a country's ability to successfully export services. The tradability indices are strongly correlated with outcome indicators, such as trade shares of individual countries. In addition, they are strongly correlated with important inputs, including country productivity and size, factor endowments, trade costs, and regulatory measures. In particular, the results suggest that a more restrictive regulatory environment significantly reduces the international tradability of services.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS6712 NOV 01, 2013
