ABSTRACT
One can imagine a trade policy change, such as a regional trade agreement (RTA) leading to lowered trade barriers, leading to an expected increase in the size of export markets and output, could have the described effect where, investment and output are higher in the new equilibrium. In a series of papers, introduces a shadow of doubt on the importance of openness for economic growth by examining whether trade policy actually increased trade in the first place. The issue will be examined further in which conducts an investigation on the effects of trade policy in increasing exports, specifically whether a country's decision to join GATT/WTO and their individual RTAs affects their exports. The demand growth accounting framework suggests this should be expected since any trade policy that would have impact on growth, through whatever channel theory might outline, would need to operate through increasing the level of exports in the economy.
