Narrow Results

This study compares the impacts of gross trade openness measures with trade openness in value-added measures on economic growth for the years 1995–2014 by employing a dynamic panel data estimation. Our findings suggest that although gross trade shares promote growth, using value-added trade shares magnifies this positive effect. Compared with gross terms, estimates also imply that while exports in value-added terms have much larger growth effect, imports in value-added terms have no significant impact. We then evaluate the impacts of tariffs on growth in terms of gross trade and trade in value added separately. Although our results imply the negative growth effects of gross import tariffs, this negative impact disappears for tariffs in value-added terms. These results reaffirm that trade protectionism has potential to lower global growth through reducing exports because it is clear that export shares regardless of their measurements and disaggregation levels promote growth. Our results indicate that countries should support not only exports of final products but also exports of intermediates. However, given the necessity of imports for exports, our results do not lend any evidence to discourage overall imports.

The trade collapse that followed the global financial crisis of 2008–2009 has led to a renewed interest in measurement issues affecting international merchandise trade statistics in the new globalized economy. The international fragmentation of industrial production blurs the concept of country of origin and calls for the production of new statistics on the domestic content of exports, with a view of estimating trade in value added. In 2010, the international statistical community revised the concepts and definitions on both international merchandise trade and trade in services statistics. This paper discusses the various issues related to the concepts of "goods for processing" and "intra-firm trade" in trade statistics, and provides an overview of the method of analyzing the impact of the fragmentation of production in international value chains.

The role of services as an input into manufacturing production — often termed "servicification" of manufacturing — is substantial in both developed and developing economies. The paper lays out conceptual and measurement issues related to services networks and provides evidence based on trade in value added statistics. Compared to goods value chains, services networks appear less fragmented internationally based on trade in value added statistics and survey evidence. However, to better capture the international services fragmentation, advances in statistics by enterprise characteristics and by mode of supply, i.e., taking into account the movement of labor and capital, are required.