The Impact of Trade Openness on Manufacturing Sector Growth in WTO NACs: Dynamic Panel Data Approach

Empirical studies show that establishment of World Trade Organization (WTO) had a significant role in increasing growth of international trade. After removal of international sanctions, membership in WTO is one of the most important economic challenges for Iran. The aim of this paper is to investigate the potential effects of trade negotiations and WTO membership on growth of manufacturing industries, by exploring and simulating based on experiences of acceded countries. To meet this end, we estimated an endogenous economic growth model, using longitudinal data from 179 countries, including 36 newly acceded countries, during the period 1980 to 2015, with dynamic panel data and instrumental variables (Panel GMM) approach. We have used the proportion of value added in manufacturing sector to GDP as a proxy for industrial growth. Also, we have included two dummy variables for negotiation process and membership period to separate the effects related to each of them. Our results show that there is a positive and significant relationship between growth of manufacturing sector and WTO accessing negotiation process, as well as WTO membership. It means that, the effects of accession to the WTO on growth of manufacturing sector is not limited to the period after the full membership, but also - because of required reforms in the economic institutions and policies - the process of accession negotiations can affect economic growth as well.