Self-Arming or Self-Harming? Assessing Trade Policies in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Ana Margarida Fernandes is a Lead Economist in the Trade and International Integration Unit of the Development Research Group at the World Bank. She joined the World Bank as a Young Economist in 2002. Her research examines the consequences of openness to trade and FDI for firm-level productivity, innovation and quality upgrading. Her work has also focused on the impact evaluation of trade-related policy interventions such as export promotion and customs reforms around the globe (Albania, Serbia, Madagascar, Tunisia). Since 2011 she has been managing the Exporter Dynamics Database project and studying the links between exporter growth and dynamics, development, policies, and shocks. She is currently working on deep trade agreements and on corruption in customs and tax evasion.

Devaki Ghose is an Economist in the Trade and International Integration Unit of the Development Research Group. Her primary fields of research are international trade, urban, and development economics. She is particularly interested in studying the distributional consequences of trade and infrastructure investments in developing countries. Recent projects  analyze how trade, offshoring, and migration responses affect each other via individual and firm responses to economic shocks. She received her PhD in economics from the University of Virginia in 2020.

Mona Haddad is the Global Director for Trade, Investment and Competitiveness in the Equitable Growth, Finance, and Institutions Practice Group (EFI) Vice Presidency. Ms. Haddad, a Lebanese national, joined the Bank in 1992 as a Young Professional. She has since held various positions in both the IBRD and IFC, her most recent assignment being Director of the Country Economics and Engagement department at IFC, where she led the development of the joint WBG Country Private Sector Diagnostics. Prior to this, she held roles including as Practice Manager of the Trade and Competitiveness Global Practice in East Asia, Sector Manager of the International Trade Department, as well as Trade Advisor to the Minister of Economy and Trade of Lebanon.

Deon Filmer is Director of the Development Research Group at the World Bank. He has previously served as Acting Research Manager in the Research Group, Co-Director of the World Development Report 2018: Learning to Realize Education’s Promise, and Lead Economist in the Human Development department of the Africa Region of the World Bank. He works on issues of human capital and skills, service delivery, and the impact of policies and programs to improve human development outcomes—with research spanning the areas of education, health, social protection, and poverty and inequality. He has published widely in refereed journals, including studies of the impact of demand-side programs on schooling and learning; the roles of poverty, gender, orphanhood, and disability in explaining education inequalities; and the determinants of effective service delivery.