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Tall paper walls: the political economy of visas and cross-border travel

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 18:14 authored by Andy MckayAndy Mckay, Tsegay G Tekleselassie
Cross-border travel for business, personal and tourism purposes is an important component of trade in services. In 2013, travel accounted for 25% of services export in the world. Trade in services accounted for 12% of GDP in the world. Hence, the role of travel in many economies is substantial. The current paper studies the determinants of cross-border flows of people with a particular emphasis on the role of visa policies. We adopt the UN General Assembly Affinity Index, a measure of the quality of bilateral relations between nations, to instrument for bilateral visa policy. We find that, ceteris paribus, imposing visa restrictions on a country reduces travel from that country by about 73% in 2010 implying restrictive visa policies discourage cross-border travel significantly. This implies an adverse impact of restrictive visa policies on trade-in-services.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

World Economy

ISSN

0378-5920

Publisher

Wiley

Issue

11

Volume

41

Page range

2914-2933

Department affiliated with

  • Economics Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2019-06-26

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2019-06-26

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