Special economic zones and WTO compliance: evidence from the Dominican Republic

Special economic zones (SEZ), one of the most important instruments of industrial policy used in developing countries, often impose export share requirements (ESR). That is, firms located in SEZ are required to export more than a certain share of their output to enjoy a wide array of incentives--a p...

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Main Authors: Defever, Fabrice, Riaño, Alejandro, Reyes, Jose-Daniel, Sanchez-Martin, Miguel Eduardo
Format: Article
Published: Wiley 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50396/
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author Defever, Fabrice
Riaño, Alejandro
Reyes, Jose-Daniel
Sanchez-Martin, Miguel Eduardo
author_facet Defever, Fabrice
Riaño, Alejandro
Reyes, Jose-Daniel
Sanchez-Martin, Miguel Eduardo
author_sort Defever, Fabrice
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Special economic zones (SEZ), one of the most important instruments of industrial policy used in developing countries, often impose export share requirements (ESR). That is, firms located in SEZ are required to export more than a certain share of their output to enjoy a wide array of incentives--a practice prohibited by the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures. In this paper we exploit the staggered removal of ESR across products and over time in the SEZ of the Dominican Republic--a reform driven by external commitments to comply with WTO disciplines on subsidies--to evaluate how ESR effect export performance at the product- and firm-level. Using customs data on international trade transactions from the period 2006 to 2014, we find that making the Dominican SEZ regime WTO-compliant made SEZ more attractive locations for exporters to be based in. The reform, however, did not have a significant effect on the country's exports nor on the share of export value originating from SEZ.
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spelling nottingham-503962020-05-04T19:40:59Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50396/ Special economic zones and WTO compliance: evidence from the Dominican Republic Defever, Fabrice Riaño, Alejandro Reyes, Jose-Daniel Sanchez-Martin, Miguel Eduardo Special economic zones (SEZ), one of the most important instruments of industrial policy used in developing countries, often impose export share requirements (ESR). That is, firms located in SEZ are required to export more than a certain share of their output to enjoy a wide array of incentives--a practice prohibited by the World Trade Organization's Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures. In this paper we exploit the staggered removal of ESR across products and over time in the SEZ of the Dominican Republic--a reform driven by external commitments to comply with WTO disciplines on subsidies--to evaluate how ESR effect export performance at the product- and firm-level. Using customs data on international trade transactions from the period 2006 to 2014, we find that making the Dominican SEZ regime WTO-compliant made SEZ more attractive locations for exporters to be based in. The reform, however, did not have a significant effect on the country's exports nor on the share of export value originating from SEZ. Wiley 2018-06-14 Article PeerReviewed Defever, Fabrice, Riaño, Alejandro, Reyes, Jose-Daniel and Sanchez-Martin, Miguel Eduardo (2018) Special economic zones and WTO compliance: evidence from the Dominican Republic. Economica . ISSN 1468-0335 Special economic zones; Export share requirements; Export subsidies; Agreement on subsidies and countervailing measures; Dominican Republic https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ecca.12276 doi:10.1111/ecca.12276 doi:10.1111/ecca.12276
spellingShingle Special economic zones; Export share requirements; Export subsidies; Agreement on subsidies and countervailing measures; Dominican Republic
Defever, Fabrice
Riaño, Alejandro
Reyes, Jose-Daniel
Sanchez-Martin, Miguel Eduardo
Special economic zones and WTO compliance: evidence from the Dominican Republic
title Special economic zones and WTO compliance: evidence from the Dominican Republic
title_full Special economic zones and WTO compliance: evidence from the Dominican Republic
title_fullStr Special economic zones and WTO compliance: evidence from the Dominican Republic
title_full_unstemmed Special economic zones and WTO compliance: evidence from the Dominican Republic
title_short Special economic zones and WTO compliance: evidence from the Dominican Republic
title_sort special economic zones and wto compliance: evidence from the dominican republic
topic Special economic zones; Export share requirements; Export subsidies; Agreement on subsidies and countervailing measures; Dominican Republic
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50396/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50396/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/50396/