Dark Costs, Missing Data: Shedding Some Light on Services Trade

64 Pages Posted: 24 Nov 2015

See all articles by James E. Anderson

James E. Anderson

Boston College - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Ingo Borchert

World Bank - Development Research Group (DECRG)

Aaditya Mattoo

World Bank - Development Research Group (DECRG)

Yoto V. Yotov

Drexel University - Department of Economics & International Business

Date Written: October 29, 2015

Abstract

A structural gravity model is used to estimate barriers to services trade across many sectors, countries and time. Since the disaggregated output data needed to flexibly infer border barriers are often missing for services, we derive a novel methodology for projecting output data. The empirical implementation sheds light on the role of institutions, geography, size and digital infrastructure as determinants of border barriers. We find that border barriers have generally fallen over time but there are differences across sectors and countries. Notably, border effects for the smallest economies have remained stable, giving rise to a divergent pattern across countries.

Keywords: gravity, services trade, trade costs in services, home bias, border effects

JEL Classification: F130, F140, F160

Suggested Citation

Anderson, James E. and Borchert, Ingo and Mattoo, Aaditya and Yotov, Yoto, Dark Costs, Missing Data: Shedding Some Light on Services Trade (October 29, 2015). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 5577, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2694434 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2694434

James E. Anderson

Boston College - Department of Economics ( email )

140 Commonwealth Avenue
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
United States
617-552-3691 (Phone)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Ingo Borchert

World Bank - Development Research Group (DECRG) ( email )

1818 H Street NW
MSN3-311
Washington, DC 20433
United States

Aaditya Mattoo

World Bank - Development Research Group (DECRG) ( email )

1818 H Street, N.W.
Room MC 3-327
Washington, DC 20433
United States
202-458-8047 (Phone)
202-676-9810 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://econ.worldbank.org/staff/amattoo

Yoto Yotov (Contact Author)

Drexel University - Department of Economics & International Business ( email )

3141 Chestnut St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
57
Abstract Views
766
Rank
659,215
PlumX Metrics