Trade Liberalization and Growth: Plant-Level Evidence from Switzerland

Stefan Bühler (), Marco Helm () and Michael Lechner
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Stefan Buehler

No 1133, Economics Working Paper Series from University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science

Abstract: This paper estimates the effect of trade liberalization on growth, using plant-level data from Switzerland. We employ a natural experiment framework to quantify the effect of a bundle of treaties liberalizing trade between Switzerland and the EU enacted in June 2002 ("Bilateral Agreements I") on the growth of Swiss plants. Using both a semi-parametric difference-indifferences and a matching approach, we find that the liberalization of trade increased the growth of affected plants by 1-2 percent during the first six years after liberalization. Our results suggest that trade liberalization has a relevant effect on growth.

Keywords: Trade liberalization; growth; plant size; policy evaluation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C31 F13 F43 L25 O47 O52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2011-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-fdg and nep-int
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
http://ux-tauri.unisg.ch/RePEc/usg/econwp/EWP-1133.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
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:usg:econwp:2011:33

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Economics Working Paper Series from University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().