IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v212y2022ics0165176521003347.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The costs of regulatory barriers to trade in services: New estimates of ad valorem tariff equivalents

Author

Listed:
  • Benz, Sebastian
  • Jaax, Alexander

Abstract

This paper estimates policy-induced trade costs in five services sectors for 46 countries using structural gravity. Despite services trade having tripled in the last two decades, the results show that trade costs remain high. The estimates highlight potential for services trade liberalisation and can support trade policy modelling.

Suggested Citation

  • Benz, Sebastian & Jaax, Alexander, 2022. "The costs of regulatory barriers to trade in services: New estimates of ad valorem tariff equivalents," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:212:y:2022:i:c:s0165176521003347
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2021.110057
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176521003347
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2021.110057?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Blank, Sven & Egger, Peter H. & Merlo, Valeria & Wamser, Georg, 2022. "A structural quantitative analysis of services trade de-liberalization," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    2. Dorothée Rouzet & Sebastian Benz & Francesca Spinelli, 2017. "Trading firms and trading costs in services: Firm-level analysis," OECD Trade Policy Papers 210, OECD Publishing.
    3. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2003. "Gravity with Gravitas: A Solution to the Border Puzzle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 170-192, March.
    4. Elisabeth Christen & Michael Pfaffermayr & Yvonne Wolfmayr, 2019. "Trade Costs in Services: Firm Survival, Firm Growth and Implied Changes in Employment," CESifo Working Paper Series 8008, CESifo.
    5. Anderson, James E. & Borchert, Ingo & Mattoo, Aaditya & Yotov, Yoto V., 2018. "Dark costs, missing data: Shedding some light on services trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 193-214.
    6. Sebastian Benz, 2017. "Services trade costs: Tariff equivalents of services trade restrictions using gravity estimation," OECD Trade Policy Papers 200, OECD Publishing.
    7. Andreas Dür & Leonardo Baccini & Manfred Elsig, 2014. "The design of international trade agreements: Introducing a new dataset," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 353-375, September.
    8. Lionel Fontagné & Cristina Mitaritonna & José E. Signoret, 2016. "Estimated Tariff Equivalents of Services NTMs," Working Papers 2016-20, CEPII research center.
    9. Benedikt Heid & Mario Larch & Yoto V. Yotov, 2021. "Estimating the effects of non‐discriminatory trade policies within structural gravity models," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(1), pages 376-409, February.
    10. Yotov, Yoto V., 2012. "A simple solution to the distance puzzle in international trade," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 117(3), pages 794-798.
    11. Dür, Andreas & Baccini, Leonardo & Elsig, Manfred, 2014. "The design of international trade agreements: introducing a new dataset," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 59179, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Erik Marel & Ben Shepherd, 2013. "Services Trade, Regulation and Regional Integration: Evidence from Sectoral Data," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(11), pages 1393-1405, November.
    13. Miroudot, Sébastien & Sauvage, Jehan & Shepherd, Ben, 2013. "Measuring the cost of international trade in services," World Trade Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 12(4), pages 719-735, October.
    14. Hildegunn K. Nordås & Dorothée Rouzet, 2017. "The Impact of Services Trade Restrictiveness on Trade Flows," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(6), pages 1155-1183, June.
    15. Egger, Peter H. & Tarlea, Filip, 2015. "Multi-way clustering estimation of standard errors in gravity models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 144-147.
    16. Nizalova Olena Y. & Murtazashvili Irina, 2016. "Exogenous Treatment and Endogenous Factors: Vanishing of Omitted Variable Bias on the Interaction Term," Journal of Econometric Methods, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 71-77, January.
    17. Fontagné, Lionel & Guillin, Amélie & Mitaritonna, Cristina, 2010. "Estimations of Tariff Equivalents for the Services Sectors," Conference papers 331941, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    18. Egger, Peter & Larch, Mario & Nigai, Sergey & Yotov, Yoto, 2021. "Trade costs in the global economy: Measurement, aggregation and decomposition," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2021-2, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xin Fu & Tangyou Wang & Hongxu Yang, 2023. "Does Service Trade Liberalization Promote Service Productivity? Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-22, April.
    2. Lukman OYELAMI & Amara ZONGO, 2022. "Modeling the Impact of Non-Tariff Barriers in Services on Intra-African Trade: Global Trade Analysis Project Model," Bordeaux Economics Working Papers 2022-08, Bordeaux School of Economics (BSE).
    3. Anirudh Shingal, 2023. "Mode 4 restrictiveness and services trade," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 159(3), pages 757-786, August.
    4. Camille Reverdy, 2023. "Estimating the general equilibrium effects of services trade liberalization," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 493-521, May.
    5. Latorre, Maria C. & Yonezawa, Hidemichi & Olekseyuk, Zoryana, 2022. "The EU-Mercosur agreement: An in-depth analysis of CO2 emissions and labor market results," Conference papers 333488, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    6. Tamar Khachaturian & Sarah Oliver, 2023. "Intangible trade: Understanding the relationship between trade barriers and mode of supply in services sectors," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(5), pages 1189-1234, May.
    7. Métivier, Jeanne & Bacchetta, Marc & Bekkers, Eddy & Koopman, Robert Bernard, 2023. "International trade cooperation's impact on the world economy," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2023-02, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    8. Richard Baldwin & Rebecca Freeman & Angelos Theodorakopoulos, 2024. "Deconstructing Deglobalization: The Future of Trade is in Intermediate Services," Asian Economic Policy Review, Japan Center for Economic Research, vol. 19(1), pages 18-37, January.
    9. Anirudh Shingal, 2022. "COVID‐19, services trade and greenfield investment in ASEAN+6," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(10), pages 3146-3168, October.
    10. So, Roger Yu & Bekkers, Eddy, 2024. "The trade effects of a new agreement on services domestic regulation," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2024-02, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    11. Alexander Jaax & Sébastien Miroudot, 2021. "Capturing value in GVCs through intangible assets: The role of the trade–investment–intellectual property nexus," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(3), pages 433-452, September.
    12. González, Javier & Latorre, María C. & Valverde, Gabriela Ortiz, 2022. "A comprehensive short and long-run assessment on the impact of the EU-Mercosur agreement on Brazil," Conference papers 333391, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    13. Zhuoran Bai & Shuang Meng & Zhuang Miao & Yan Zhang, 2023. "Liberalization for services foreign direct investment and product mix adjustment: Evidence from Chinese exporting firms," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 363-388, May.
    14. Métivier, Jeanne & Bacchetta, Marc & Bekkers, Eddy & Koopman, Robert, 2023. "International trade cooperation’s impact on the world economy," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 713-744.
    15. Gonzalez Cabrera, Carlos Javier & Latorre, María C. & Ortiz Valverde, Gabriela, 2020. "A Computable General Equilibrium Model (CGE) assessment of the short and long-run impact on Brazil of the European Union – Mercosur Trade Agreement," Conference papers 333242, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    16. Sebastian Benz & Janos Ferencz & Hildegunn K. Nordås, 2020. "Regulatory barriers to trade in services: A new database and composite indices," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(11), pages 2860-2879, November.

    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. Mulabdic, Alen & Rotunno, Lorenzo, 2022. "Trade barriers in government procurement," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    2. Jacopo Timini & Nicola Cortinovis & Fernando López Vicente, 2022. "The heterogeneous effects of trade agreements with labour provisions," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(9), pages 2820-2853, September.
    3. So, Roger Yu & Bekkers, Eddy, 2024. "The trade effects of a new agreement on services domestic regulation," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2024-02, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    4. Jacopo Timini & Nicola Cortinovis & Fernando López Vicente, 2020. "The heterogeneous effects of trade agreements with labor provisions (Updated March 2021)," Working Papers 2017, Banco de España, revised Mar 2021.
    5. Camille Reverdy, 2023. "Estimating the general equilibrium effects of services trade liberalization," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 493-521, May.
    6. Benz, Sebastian & Jaax, Alexander, 2019. "Quantifying the costs of regulatory barriers to trade in services: New estimates of ad valorem equivalents based on the OECD STRI," Conference papers 333096, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    7. Tamar Khachaturian & Sarah Oliver, 2023. "Intangible trade: Understanding the relationship between trade barriers and mode of supply in services sectors," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(5), pages 1189-1234, May.
    8. Anirudh Shingal, 2023. "Mode 4 restrictiveness and services trade," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 159(3), pages 757-786, August.
    9. Milena Kern & Jörg Paetzold & Hannes Winner, 2021. "Cutting red tape for trade in services," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(10), pages 2858-2886, October.
    10. Mario Larch & Aiko F. Schmeißer & Joschka Wanner, 2021. "A Tale of (almost) 1001 Coefficients: The Deep and Heterogeneous Effects of the EU‐Turkey Customs Union," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(2), pages 242-260, March.
    11. Mr. Diego A. Cerdeiro & Rachel J. Nam, 2018. "A Multidimensional Approach to Trade Policy Indicators," IMF Working Papers 2018/032, International Monetary Fund.
    12. Ayman El Dahrawy Sánchez‐Albornoz & Jacopo Timini, 2021. "Trade agreements and Latin American trade (creation and diversion) and welfare," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(7), pages 2004-2040, July.
    13. Hildegunn K. Nordås & Dorothée Rouzet, 2017. "The Impact of Services Trade Restrictiveness on Trade Flows," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(6), pages 1155-1183, June.
    14. Kox, Henk L.M. & Rojas Romasgosa, Hugo, 2019. "Gravity estimations with FDI bilateral data: Potential FDI effects of deep preferential trade agreements," MPRA Paper 96318, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Yvonne Wolfmayr & Elisabeth Christen & Hendrik Mahlkow & Birgit Meyer & Michael Pfaffermayr, 2024. "Trade and Welfare Effects of New Trade Policy Instruments," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 70732.
    16. repec:wsr:ecbook:2021:i:vii-006 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Harald Oberhofer & Michael Pfaffermayr & Richard Sellner, 2021. "Revisiting time as a trade barrier: Evidence from a panel structural gravity model," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1382-1417, November.
    18. Benedikt Heid & Mario Larch & Yoto V. Yotov, 2021. "Estimating the effects of non‐discriminatory trade policies within structural gravity models," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(1), pages 376-409, February.
    19. Timini, Jacopo & Viani, Francesca, 2022. "A highway across the Atlantic? Trade and welfare effects of the EU-Mercosur agreement," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 291-308.
    20. Ziyu Yi & Long Wei & Xuan Huang, 2022. "Does Information-and-Communication-Technology Market Openness Promote Digital Service Exports?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-19, April.
    21. Harald Oberhofer & Michael Pfaffermayr, 2021. "Estimating the trade and welfare effects of Brexit: A panel data structural gravity model," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(1), pages 338-375, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Services trade; Trade cost; Trade liberalisation; Services trade restrictions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • F68 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Policy

    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:eee:ecolet:v:212:y:2022:i:c:s0165176521003347. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    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.