Overlooked Opportunity: Tradable Business Services, Developing Asia, and Growth

Date: January 2013
Type: Papers and Briefs
Subject:
Economics; Industry and trade
Series: Economics Working Papers
ISSN: 1655-5252 (print)

Description

This paper argues that developing Asia is overlooking an opportunity for increased growth and development through trade in business services. Developing Asia would benefit from liberalizing services trade as it has benefited from liberalizing goods trade. This argument rests on these key findings: business services are important for growth, developing Asia is relatively underendowed with business services, many business services are tradable, and developing Asia has relatively high barriers to services trade.

Contents

  • Abstract
  • Overview
  • Business Services and Economic Development
  • A New Approach to Identifying Tradable Services
  • Gains from Trade and the Role of Relative Prices
  • Why Lower Service Imports in (or Exports to) Developing Asia?
  • Policy Recommendations
  • References