An empirical study on the relationship between trade impediments and economic growth

In this thesis there has been looked at the relationship of different trade impediments with economic growth per capita. A general equilibrium model shows that retaliation by the trade partner is the best-response on an import tariff of the domestic country. Utility levels would however be higher for both countries in a situation with free trade. To check the relationship of other trade impediments with economic growth per capita, a fixed effects panel data regression analysis has been made, which shows that countries in a higher income-category have lower or more negative correlations. Next to that are technical barriers to trade and sanitary and phytosanitary measures associated with a small, but positive economic growth per capita. Anti-dumping measures and safeguards are expected to be harmful for economic growth, while countervailing duties have a positive correlation with economic growth per capita for countries with a GNI below $12.375 and a negative one for richer countries. There has also been looked at whether these results were different for differently sized countries, but there were ambiguous results.