Trade Liberalisation and Poverty in South Asia

Front Cover......Page 1
Trade Liberalisation and Poverty in South Asia......Page 9
Copyright Page......Page 10
Contents......Page 11
List of Illustrations......Page 14
Acknowledgements......Page 16
List of contributors......Page 17
Acronyms and abbreviations......Page 19
1. Trade liberalisation and poverty in South Asia: reforms, stylised facts and preview: Prema-chandra Athukorala, Jayatilleke S. Bandara and Saman Kelegama......Page 23
Trade policy reforms: an overview......Page 25
Economic performance and poverty: some stylised facts......Page 29
Preview......Page 35
The trade–poverty nexus: an overview......Page 39
The trade–poverty nexus in South Asia......Page 42
Lessons from other countries......Page 54
Concluding remarks......Page 57
Overview of trade liberalisation in Bangladesh......Page 59
Impacts of trade liberalisation on economic growth in Bangladesh......Page 64
Trade liberalisation and employment......Page 66
Trade liberalisation and poverty: a computable general equilibrium analysis......Page 69
The dynamic CGE model for the Bangladesh economy......Page 70
Conclusion......Page 81
4. Bhutan: Chencho Dorji......Page 83
Trade and investment policy reforms......Page 84
Regional free trade agreements......Page 88
Foreign direct investment policy......Page 89
Trends in economic growth and poverty......Page 90
Nexus between trade–growth–poverty......Page 94
Fiscal policy and poverty reduction......Page 95
Trade policy and poverty reduction......Page 96
Poverty alleviation measures......Page 97
Conclusion......Page 100
5. India: Rashmi Banga and Shruti Sharma......Page 102
Trade liberalisation in India: a brief review......Page 103
Agriculture......Page 104
Manufacturing......Page 105
Services......Page 106
Trends in trade, poverty and inequality......Page 107
Composition of India’s export basket......Page 108
Trends in income, growth and employment......Page 110
Trends in poverty and inequality......Page 111
Impact of trade on employment and wages: methodology......Page 112
Database construction......Page 115
Empirical results......Page 116
Impact of trade on wages of unskilled labour in the agriculture sector......Page 118
Conclusions and policy implications......Page 119
6. Maldives: Jagath Dissanayake and Suwendrani Jayaratne......Page 122
Trade liberalisation in Maldives: a brief overview......Page 123
Post-reform trade performance......Page 126
Post-reform growth, poverty and inequality trends......Page 128
The link between trade and poverty......Page 132
Summary and conclusion......Page 137
Trade liberalisation in Nepal: an overview......Page 139
Economic growth, poverty and inequality......Page 142
Trade–poverty links: qualitative assessment......Page 145
Concluding remarks......Page 153
Liberalisation in Pakistan: an overview......Page 156
Phase I: 1947 to 1958......Page 157
Phase II: 1958–1980s......Page 158
Phase III: the 1990s and 2000s......Page 159
Trends in growth and poverty in Pakistan......Page 162
Empirical investigation of the trade–poverty nexus......Page 165
Conclusions and policy recommendations......Page 172
9. Sri Lanka: Deshal de Mel and Ruwan Jayathilaka......Page 173
Policy context......Page 174
Trends and patterns of poverty......Page 178
The trade–poverty nexus......Page 179
Cross-cutting issues......Page 185
The trade–poverty nexus: econometric analysis......Page 188
Policy implications and conclusion......Page 191
Appendix 1......Page 197
Appendix 2......Page 199
Appendix 3......Page 200
Bibliography......Page 202
Index......Page 218