April 9, 2001
Theory, Methodology and descriptive Statistics on Services and Services Trade
Rapid technological change in information and communication technology, falling transport costs and deregulation of service markets have caused trade in services to become increasingly feasible and important.
Since internationalization of services has become a topical matter in today's economic reality, international liberalisation of services has also moved to the front of attention in multilateral trade negotiations. Interested by these developments, trade theorists have recently begun to study the determinants of service trade. This thesis tries to give a first impulse to empirical research on the determinants of service trade by mapping the patterns in international trade. The investigations have been firmly embedded in an analytical framework on the nature and characteristics of services. Moreover, it is concerned with the framework to assess the effects of liberalisation and protection of service trade on specialisation patterns.
Authors
Gert Jan Linders