Evaluating Aid for Trade: A Survey of Recent Studies

Olivier Cadot, Ana Fernandes (), Julien Gourdon, Aaditya Mattoo and Jaime de Melo

Working Papers from CEPII research center

Abstract: The paper reviews recent evidence from a wide range of studies, recognizing that a multiplicity of approaches is needed to learn what works and what does not. The review concludes that there is some support for the emphasis on reducing trade costs through investments in hard infrastructure (like ports and roads) and soft infrastructure (like customs). But failure to implement complementary reform – especially the introduction of competition in transport services – may erode the benefits of these investments. Direct support to exporters does seem to lead to diversification across products and destinations, but it is not yet clear that these benefits are durable. In general, it is difficult to rely on cross-country studies to direct AFT. More rigorous impact evaluation (IE) is an under-utilized alternative, but situations of “clinical interventions” in trade are rare and adverse incentives (due to agency problems) and costs (due to the small size of project) are a hurdle in implementation.

Keywords: Aid for trade (AFT); trade performance; gravity; impact evaluation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F15 F35 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-ppm
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cepii.fr/PDF_PUB/wp/2013/wp2013-33.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Evaluating Aid for Trade: A Survey of Recent Studies (2014)
Working Paper: Evaluating Aid for Trade: A Survey of Recent Studies (2014)
Working Paper: Evaluating aid for trade: a survey of recent studies (2014)
Working Paper: Evaluating Aid for Trade: A Survey of Recent Studies (2013)
Working Paper: Evaluating Aid for Trade: A Survey of Recent Studies (2013)
Working Paper: Evaluating Aid for Trade: A Survey of Recent Studies (2013)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cii:cepidt:2013-33

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from CEPII research center Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().