Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Paving The Way: Applying Impact-Evaluation Techniques To Trade Interventions, Olivier Cadot, Julien Gourdon

Olivier Cadot

The focus of trade policy has shifted in recent years from economy-wide reductions in tariffs and trade restrictions towards targeted interventions to facilitate trade and promote exports. Most of these latter interventions are based on the new mantra of “aid-for-trade” rather than on hard evidence on what works and what doesn’t. On the one hand, rigorous impact-evaluation is needed to justify these interventions and to improve their design. On the other hand, rigorous evaluation is feasible because unlike traditional trade policy, these interventions tend to be targeted and so it is possible to construct treatment and control groups. When interventions …