This paper examines time series evidence to investigate the link between exports and economic growth in Bangladesh. Using quarterly data for a period from 1976 to 2003 the paper finds that industrial production and exports are cointegrated. The results of an Error Correction Model (ECM) suggest that there is a long-run unidirectional causality from exports to growth in Bangladesh.

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Using panel data for 49 countries from 2000 to 2013, this paper empirically examines the impacts of ICT on exports and imports of ten service categories. Unlike most previous studies, seven different ICT variables are used to construct a comprehensive ICT development index (IDI) that captures the access, use, and skill aspects of the technology. The results indicate that overall ICT development has significant positive impacts on the exports of 'other business services' and 'transportation services' and the imports of 'insurance services', 'telecommunication services', and 'travel services'. This result is robust under different estimation methods. Among the three ICT components, ICT use is found to be more important than access and skills for trade in a number of services. Furthermore, when the models are estimated separately for advanced economics (AEs) and emerging market economies (EMEs), ICT development appears to be more important for exports from AEs and for imports by EMEs. Finally, ICT use is more important in EMEs than in AEs, particularly for imports. These results provide important policy insights for ICT development and growth of services trade.

Abstract:This paper presents the results of our empirical research in measuring the size and structure of the US information economy in 1992 and 1997, and in assessing the growth experienced by different industries and sectors since Porat's research on the US information economy in 1967. The study indicates that the share of the information economy in total GNP grew from about 46 percent in 1967 to about 56 percent in 1992, and to 63 percent in 1997. The study further indicates that during this time period the share of service sector information activities in total GNP increased substantially, while the shares of non-service sectors declined correspondingly. The industries displaying the highest growth rates include business services, and medical and educational services. The paper also provides a critical assessment of Porat's methodology and suggests specific improvements that may be made to obtain a more plausible measure of the size and structure of the information economy.

We examine the effects of information and communications technology (ICT) on international trade in emerging markets. Using panel data for forty emerging market economies (EMEs) from 1995 to 2010, we estimate fixed effects models of exports and imports with ICT as the main explanatory variable of interest. The empirical results overwhelmingly suggest that Internet subscriptions and Internet hosts have significant positive effects on both exports and imports in EMEs. Thus, the trade-enhancing effect of ICT does not depend on ICT infrastructure or ICT capability per se but on its use. This result is robust to a number of sensitivity checks.

Using a fixed effects panel data approach, this paper empirically examines the effects of trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) on growth of per capita real GDP in 13 transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe, and the Baltic region from 1991 to 2005. A significant positive effect of trade on growth is a robust result for transition economies of this region. In addition, domestic investment appears to be an important determinant of growth. In general, FDI does not have any significant impact on growth in these transition economies. However, when we control for the effects of domestic investment and trade on FDI, it appears to be a significant determinant of growth for the period after 1995.

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Using bilateral trade data for 16 service categories, this paper examines the patterns, evolution, and determinants of comparative advantage (CA) in U.S. services trade with China and India from 1992 to 2010. The results indicate that the U.S. has a CA in most services, except in more traditional ones, such as travel and transportation. However, India, and more recently China, gained a CA in modern services, such as computer and information services during the period considered in this paper. An examination of the distributional dynamics indicates that the likelihood of U.S. gaining CA over an initial position of comparative disadvantage (CDA) in its trade of a particular service with India is higher than the probability of losing its initial dominance. In contrast, the U.S. CA or CDA vis-à-vis China exhibits high levels of persistence over time. The regression results suggest that relative abundance of sector-specific labor, human capital, and FDI inflows have been significant sources of CA for the U.S. over both China and India.