Trade openness and economic growth: empirical evidence from Pakistan

This study examines the effects of increasing trade openness on Pakistan’s economic growth. A four variable macro model based on the textbook type familiar aggregate demand – aggregate supply framework is specified. And a simple ordinary least square (OLS) technique is used for the estimation. For Pakistan, shocks to trade openness have negative (but insignificant) effects on output growth. The significance of the results depends on the specification of the model, sample size and the length of the data period. The results seem to be consistent with the findings of some empirical studies in which a country may suffer a loss due to increase openness of an economy.