The Most Downloaded Article

Article titled as “Trade Openness and Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Empirical Investigation” by Prof. Dr. Halit YANIKKAYA, Head of the Department Economics, published in Journal of Development Economics, 2003, 72 (1) 57-89”, which is one of the most prestigous journals in the growth and development area, became the most downloaded article at the year of publication with the 1079 full text downloads. Since then the article keeps its strong position on the most downloaded articles list.  Morevoer, for the last two years, 2011 and 2012, his article has still been on the top-ten most downloaded article on the list. 

His article mainly investigates whether open economies grow faster than closed economies. It  demonstrates that trade liberalization does not have a simple and straightforward relationship with growth using a large number of openness measures for a cross section of over 100 countries over the 1970-1999 period. He uses two groups of trade openness measures. The regression results for numerous trade intensity ratios are mostly consistent with the existing literature. However, contrary to the conventional view on the growth effects of trade barriers, his estimation results show that trade barriers are positively and, in most specifications, significantly associated with growth, especially for developing countries and they are consistent with the findings of theoretical growth and development literature. His paper basically challenges the unconditional and optimistic view on the extent of globalization.