Impediments to Trade in Services: Measurements and Policy Implications

First Published in 2004. The economic impact of barriers to world trade and investment in services has been thought impossible to measure. As a consequence, significant global policy initiatives such as the General Agreement on Trade in Services have been concluded in an information void. This book challenges the view that impediments to services trade cannot be quantified, detailing how these barriers can be measured and their significance estimated. The book contains studies measuring impediments to trade and investment in a variety of sectors, including telecommunications, finance, shipping, education and air transport. The authors explain how the measures were calculated and show how the results could be used in sophisticated economic models. The final part of the book looks at current issues in services negotiations in the World Trade Organisation and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. The measurements and methods detailed in this work have clear relevance to policymaking on services liberalisation and could be used by both international and regional organisations in services negotiations. This work will consequently prove to be an extremely valuable addition to the literature of the field.