The Impact of Aid for Trade Facilitation on the Costs of Trading

Busse, Matthias; Hoekstra, Ruth; Koeniger, Jens

doi:10.2139/ssrn.1635884

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The Impact of Aid for Trade Facilitation on the Costs of Trading

23 Pages Posted: 7 Jul 2010 Last revised: 15 Sep 2010

See all articles by Matthias Busse

Ruth Hoekstra

Ruhr University of Bochum - Faculty of Economics

Jens Koeniger

Ruhr University of Bochum - Faculty of Economics

Date Written: September 2010

Abstract

There have been ongoing discussions within the WTO Doha Round on Trade Facilitation and the wider Aid for Trade agenda to assist developing countries in reducing behind-the-border restrictions and to help them benefit from trade reform. Our paper contributes to this debate by analyzing the impact of foreign aid spent on Aid for Trade and Trade Facilitation on the costs of trading. In our empirical investigation, we conduct a panel data estimation for a sample of 99 developing countries for the period 2004-2009. Overall, we find that our aid measures have a negative effect on the costs of trading.

Keywords: Trade Facilitation, Aid for Trade, Trade Costs

JEL Classification: F13, F35, O19

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Busse, Matthias and Hoekstra, Ruth and Koeniger, Jens, The Impact of Aid for Trade Facilitation on the Costs of Trading (September 2010). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1635884 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1635884