The evolution of services trade policy since the great recession

Policy measures are quantified into a Services Trade Restrictions Index (STRI) following a novel, consistent and transparent framework. Building on these innovations, the paper identifies patterns of services trade policies across sectors and economies, as well as secular trends over the past decade. Higher income economies are still more open on average than developing economies, but the chronology of reform differs markedly across sectors. In telecommunications and finance, we see convergence towards greater openness driven by liberalization in the previously more restrictive developing economies. In the hitherto universally protected transport and professional services, we see policy divergence as some higher income economies pioneer reform. But while explicit restrictions are being lowered in most services sectors – in contrast to recent developments in goods trade policy – we also see greater recourse to regulatory scrutiny, especially in higher income economies. These measures could reflect legitimate prudential or security concerns, but they could also reflect recourse to less transparent forms of protection.

N°: ERSD-2020-02

Autores: Ingo Borchert, Joscelyn Magdeleine, Juan A. Marchetti, Aaditya Mattoo

Fecha de redacción: febrero de 2020 (revised on 29 May 2020)

Palabras clave:

services trade policy, investment, STRI, trade restrictions, quantification

Código JEL:

F13, F14, F23, L80, O24

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