Evaluating Aid for Trade A Survey of Recent Studies

The demand for accountability in aid-for-trade is increasing but monitoring has focused on case studies and impressionistic narratives. The paper reviews recent evidence from a wide range of studies, recognizing that a multiplicity of approaches is needed to learn what works and what does not. The r...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Cadot, Olivier
Other Authors: Mattoo, Aaditya, Fernandes, Ana, de Melo, Jaime
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C The World Bank 2014
Online Access:
Collection: World Bank E-Library Archive - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
LEADER 01914nmm a2200241 u 4500
001 EB002101137
003 EBX01000000000000001241227
005 00000000000000.0
007 cr|||||||||||||||||||||
008 221013 ||| eng
100 1 |a Cadot, Olivier 
245 0 0 |a Evaluating Aid for Trade  |h Elektronische Ressource  |b A Survey of Recent Studies  |c Cadot, Olivier 
260 |a Washington, D.C  |b The World Bank  |c 2014 
300 |a 27 p 
700 1 |a Mattoo, Aaditya 
700 1 |a Fernandes, Ana 
700 1 |a de Melo, Jaime 
041 0 7 |a eng  |2 ISO 639-2 
989 |b WOBA  |a World Bank E-Library Archive 
028 5 0 |a 10.1596/1813-9450-6742 
856 4 0 |u http://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/book/10.1596/1813-9450-6742  |x Verlag  |3 Volltext 
082 0 |a 330 
520 |a The demand for accountability in aid-for-trade is increasing but monitoring has focused on case studies and impressionistic narratives. The paper reviews recent evidence from a wide range of studies, recognizing that a multiplicity of approaches is needed to learn what works and what does not. The review concludes that there is some support for the emphasis on reducing trade costs through investments in hard infrastructure (like ports and roads) and soft infrastructure (like customs). But failure to implement complementary reform-especially the introduction of competition in transport services-may erode the benefits of these investments. Direct support to exporters does seem to lead to diversification across products and destinations, but it is not yet clear that these benefits are durable. In general, it is difficult to rely on cross-country studies to direct aid-for-trade. More rigorous impact evaluation is an underutilized alternative, but situations of clinical interventions in trade are rare and adverse incentives (because of agency problems) and costs (because of the small size of project) are a hurdle in implementation