Odyssey in International Markets: An Assessment of the Effectiveness of Export Promotion in Latin America and the Caribbean: Special Report on Integration and Trade: Summary

Date
Aug 2010
Export promotion is costly, and the resources it requires might be better employed elsewhere. In order to ascertain that these resources are, in fact, being well invested, it must be first determined whether the policy initiatives they finance have an impact on those variables that they are supposed to affect--in this case, exports. Making this determination is the aim of this report. Odyssey in International Markets begins by making a comprehensive analysis of export promotion organizations in some three dozen countries and regions. Second, it provides robust evaluations, using state-of-the-art econometrics and original datasets, of the impacts that policies have had on export outcomes of countries and firms. At the same time, the report points to areas where further research would produce deeper insights into its relative merits.