Author: Robin Mearns
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Access To Land
Languages : en
Pages : 83
Book Description
Abstract: May 1999 - Which factors prevent the rural poor and other socially excluded groups from having access to land in Orissa, India? The authors report on the first empirical study of its kind to examine - from the perspective of transaction costs--factors that constrain access to land for the rural poor and other socially excluded groups in India. They find that: Land reform has reduced large landholdings since the 1950s. Medium size farms have gained most. Formidable obstacles still prevent the poor from gaining access to land; The complexity of land revenue administration in Orissa is partly the legacy of distinctly different systems, which produced more or less complete and accurate land records. These not-so-distant historical records can be important in resolving contemporary land disputes; Orissa tried legally to abolish land-leasing. Concealed tenancy persisted, with tenants having little protection under the law; Women's access to and control over land, and their bargaining power with their husbands about land, may be enhanced through joint land titling, a principle yet to be realized in Orissa; Land administration is viewed as a burden on the state rather than a service, and land records and registration systems are not coordinated. Doing so will improve rights for the poor and reduce transaction costs--but only if the system is transparent and the powerful do not retain the leverage over settlement officers that has allowed land grabs. Land in Orissa may be purchased, inherited, rented (leased), or--in the case of public land and the commons--encroached upon. Each type of transaction--and the State's response, through land law and administration--has implications for poor people's access to land. The authors find that: Land markets are thin and transaction costs are high, limiting the amount of agricultural land that changes hands; The fragmentation of landholdings into tiny, scattered plots is a brake on agricultural productivity, but efforts to consolidate land may discriminate against the rural poor. Reducing transaction costs in land markets will help; Protecting the rural poor's rights of access to common land requires raising public awareness and access to information; Liberalizing land-lease markets for the rural poor will help, but only if the poor are ensured access to institutional credit. This paper--a product of the Rural Development Sector Unit, South Asia Region--is part of a larger effort in the region to promote access to land and to foster more demand-driven and socially inclusive institutions in rural development. Robin Mearns may be contacted at [email protected].
Social Exclusion and Land Administration in Orissa, India
Author: Robin Mearns
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Access To Land
Languages : en
Pages : 83
Book Description
Abstract: May 1999 - Which factors prevent the rural poor and other socially excluded groups from having access to land in Orissa, India? The authors report on the first empirical study of its kind to examine - from the perspective of transaction costs--factors that constrain access to land for the rural poor and other socially excluded groups in India. They find that: Land reform has reduced large landholdings since the 1950s. Medium size farms have gained most. Formidable obstacles still prevent the poor from gaining access to land; The complexity of land revenue administration in Orissa is partly the legacy of distinctly different systems, which produced more or less complete and accurate land records. These not-so-distant historical records can be important in resolving contemporary land disputes; Orissa tried legally to abolish land-leasing. Concealed tenancy persisted, with tenants having little protection under the law; Women's access to and control over land, and their bargaining power with their husbands about land, may be enhanced through joint land titling, a principle yet to be realized in Orissa; Land administration is viewed as a burden on the state rather than a service, and land records and registration systems are not coordinated. Doing so will improve rights for the poor and reduce transaction costs--but only if the system is transparent and the powerful do not retain the leverage over settlement officers that has allowed land grabs. Land in Orissa may be purchased, inherited, rented (leased), or--in the case of public land and the commons--encroached upon. Each type of transaction--and the State's response, through land law and administration--has implications for poor people's access to land. The authors find that: Land markets are thin and transaction costs are high, limiting the amount of agricultural land that changes hands; The fragmentation of landholdings into tiny, scattered plots is a brake on agricultural productivity, but efforts to consolidate land may discriminate against the rural poor. Reducing transaction costs in land markets will help; Protecting the rural poor's rights of access to common land requires raising public awareness and access to information; Liberalizing land-lease markets for the rural poor will help, but only if the poor are ensured access to institutional credit. This paper--a product of the Rural Development Sector Unit, South Asia Region--is part of a larger effort in the region to promote access to land and to foster more demand-driven and socially inclusive institutions in rural development. Robin Mearns may be contacted at [email protected].
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Access To Land
Languages : en
Pages : 83
Book Description
Abstract: May 1999 - Which factors prevent the rural poor and other socially excluded groups from having access to land in Orissa, India? The authors report on the first empirical study of its kind to examine - from the perspective of transaction costs--factors that constrain access to land for the rural poor and other socially excluded groups in India. They find that: Land reform has reduced large landholdings since the 1950s. Medium size farms have gained most. Formidable obstacles still prevent the poor from gaining access to land; The complexity of land revenue administration in Orissa is partly the legacy of distinctly different systems, which produced more or less complete and accurate land records. These not-so-distant historical records can be important in resolving contemporary land disputes; Orissa tried legally to abolish land-leasing. Concealed tenancy persisted, with tenants having little protection under the law; Women's access to and control over land, and their bargaining power with their husbands about land, may be enhanced through joint land titling, a principle yet to be realized in Orissa; Land administration is viewed as a burden on the state rather than a service, and land records and registration systems are not coordinated. Doing so will improve rights for the poor and reduce transaction costs--but only if the system is transparent and the powerful do not retain the leverage over settlement officers that has allowed land grabs. Land in Orissa may be purchased, inherited, rented (leased), or--in the case of public land and the commons--encroached upon. Each type of transaction--and the State's response, through land law and administration--has implications for poor people's access to land. The authors find that: Land markets are thin and transaction costs are high, limiting the amount of agricultural land that changes hands; The fragmentation of landholdings into tiny, scattered plots is a brake on agricultural productivity, but efforts to consolidate land may discriminate against the rural poor. Reducing transaction costs in land markets will help; Protecting the rural poor's rights of access to common land requires raising public awareness and access to information; Liberalizing land-lease markets for the rural poor will help, but only if the poor are ensured access to institutional credit. This paper--a product of the Rural Development Sector Unit, South Asia Region--is part of a larger effort in the region to promote access to land and to foster more demand-driven and socially inclusive institutions in rural development. Robin Mearns may be contacted at [email protected].
Social Exclusion and Land Administration in Orissa, India
Author: Robin Mearns
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Land ownership
Languages : en
Pages : 86
Book Description
Based on a study of three districts, Sambalpur, Khurda and Ganjam in the Indian state of Orissa, discusses the factors that restrict access to land by the rural poor and other socially excluded groups from the perspective of transaction costs.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Land ownership
Languages : en
Pages : 86
Book Description
Based on a study of three districts, Sambalpur, Khurda and Ganjam in the Indian state of Orissa, discusses the factors that restrict access to land by the rural poor and other socially excluded groups from the perspective of transaction costs.
Land Alienation and Its Dimensions
Author: Karunakar Patnaik
Publisher: Concept Publishing Company
ISBN: 9788180697661
Category : Allotment of land
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
Publisher: Concept Publishing Company
ISBN: 9788180697661
Category : Allotment of land
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
Income Gains to the Poor from Workfare
Author: Jyotsna Jalan
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Communities and Human Settlements
Languages : en
Pages : 36
Book Description
A workfare program was introduced in response to high unemployment in Argentina. An ex-post evaluation using matching methods indicates that the program generated sizable net income gains to generally poor participants.
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Communities and Human Settlements
Languages : en
Pages : 36
Book Description
A workfare program was introduced in response to high unemployment in Argentina. An ex-post evaluation using matching methods indicates that the program generated sizable net income gains to generally poor participants.
Adjusting to Trade Policy Reform
Author: Steven Joseph Matusz
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Comercio - Paises en desarrollo
Languages : en
Pages : 63
Book Description
A survey of more than 50 empirical papers shows that the adjustment costs of trade liberalization are small relative to the benefits. Moreover, manufacturing employment typically increases with trade liberalization. The limited data suggests that trade liberalization reduces poverty.
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Comercio - Paises en desarrollo
Languages : en
Pages : 63
Book Description
A survey of more than 50 empirical papers shows that the adjustment costs of trade liberalization are small relative to the benefits. Moreover, manufacturing employment typically increases with trade liberalization. The limited data suggests that trade liberalization reduces poverty.
Hungary's Integration Into European Union Markets
Author: Bart?omiej Kami?ski
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Access to Markets
Languages : en
Pages : 33
Book Description
Abstract: June 1999 - Can Hungarian firms cope with competitive pressures and market forces within the European Union market (a criterion for joining)? The empirical evidence suggests that Hungary can withstand such competitive pressures without suppressing the real incomes of Hungary's citizens. Hungary has achieved impressive results in reorienting both its production and trade. Between 1989 and 1992, as the former CMEA markets collapsed and Hungary liberalized imports and the exchange rate regime, exports to the European Union (EU) expanded, with manufactured exports redirected largely to Western (mostly EU) markets. During this first phase of expansion, characterized by a dramatic reorientation and explosion of trade, the value of Hungary's exports increased 84 percent. In 1993 export expansion lost steam and EU-oriented exports fell 12 percent. In a second phase of expansion (in 1994-97), driven by restructured and rapidly changing export offers, exports again registered strong performance, their value increasing 132 percent. There was a dramatic shift from an export basket dominated by resource-intensive, low-value-added products to one driven by manufactures, with a rapidly accelerating growth of engineering products. Machinery and transport equipment rose from 12 percent of exports to the EU in 1989 to more than 50 percent in 1997. The shift from natural resource and unskilled-labor-intensive products to technology- and capital-intensive products in EU-oriented exports suggests the potential for integration higher in the value-added spectrum. More stringent EU environmental regulations will affect a relatively low, and falling, share of Hungary's exports. The Hungarian share of environmentally dirty products imported by the EU has increased, but these products have not been trendsetters among Hungarian exports, their share in exports falling from 26 percent in 1989 to 16 percent in 1996. The rapid pace of Hungary's turnaround seems to reflect the emergence of second-generation firms, mostly foreign-owned. Foreign-owned firms tend to be more export-oriented. Hungary has been one of the more successful transition economies because its economy was receptive to foreign direct investment from the outset. Between 1990 and 1997, Hungary absorbed roughly half of all foreign capital invested in Central Europe. This paper - a product of Trade, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to study regional integration. The author may be contacted at bkaminski@@worldbank.org.
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Access to Markets
Languages : en
Pages : 33
Book Description
Abstract: June 1999 - Can Hungarian firms cope with competitive pressures and market forces within the European Union market (a criterion for joining)? The empirical evidence suggests that Hungary can withstand such competitive pressures without suppressing the real incomes of Hungary's citizens. Hungary has achieved impressive results in reorienting both its production and trade. Between 1989 and 1992, as the former CMEA markets collapsed and Hungary liberalized imports and the exchange rate regime, exports to the European Union (EU) expanded, with manufactured exports redirected largely to Western (mostly EU) markets. During this first phase of expansion, characterized by a dramatic reorientation and explosion of trade, the value of Hungary's exports increased 84 percent. In 1993 export expansion lost steam and EU-oriented exports fell 12 percent. In a second phase of expansion (in 1994-97), driven by restructured and rapidly changing export offers, exports again registered strong performance, their value increasing 132 percent. There was a dramatic shift from an export basket dominated by resource-intensive, low-value-added products to one driven by manufactures, with a rapidly accelerating growth of engineering products. Machinery and transport equipment rose from 12 percent of exports to the EU in 1989 to more than 50 percent in 1997. The shift from natural resource and unskilled-labor-intensive products to technology- and capital-intensive products in EU-oriented exports suggests the potential for integration higher in the value-added spectrum. More stringent EU environmental regulations will affect a relatively low, and falling, share of Hungary's exports. The Hungarian share of environmentally dirty products imported by the EU has increased, but these products have not been trendsetters among Hungarian exports, their share in exports falling from 26 percent in 1989 to 16 percent in 1996. The rapid pace of Hungary's turnaround seems to reflect the emergence of second-generation firms, mostly foreign-owned. Foreign-owned firms tend to be more export-oriented. Hungary has been one of the more successful transition economies because its economy was receptive to foreign direct investment from the outset. Between 1990 and 1997, Hungary absorbed roughly half of all foreign capital invested in Central Europe. This paper - a product of Trade, Development Research Group - is part of a larger effort in the group to study regional integration. The author may be contacted at bkaminski@@worldbank.org.
Access to Land in Rural India
Author: Robin Mearns
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Agrarian Structure
Languages : en
Pages : 56
Book Description
Abstract: May 1999 - Access to land is deeply important in rural India, where the incidence of poverty is highly correlated with lack of access to land. The author provides a framework for assessing alternative approaches to improving access to land by India's rural poor. He considers India's record implementing land reform and identifies an approach that includes incremental reforms in public land administration to reduce transaction costs in land markets (thereby facilitating land transfers) and to increase transparency, making information accessible to the public to ensure that socially excluded groups benefit. Reducing constraints on access to land for the rural poor and socially excluded requires five key issues: restrictions on land-lease markets, the fragmentation of holdings, the widespread failure to translate women's legal rights into practice, poor access to (and encroachment on) the commons, and high transaction costs for land transfers. Among guidelines for policy reform the author suggests: Selectively deregulate land-lease (rental) markets, because rental markets may be important in giving the poor access to land; Reduce transaction costs in land markets, including both official costs and informal costs (such as bribes to expedite transactions), partly by improving systems for land registration and management of land records; Critically reassess land administration agencies and find ways to improve incentive structures, to reduce rent-seeking and base promotions on performance; Promote women's independent land rights through policy measures to increase women's bargaining power within the household and in society generally; Improve transparency of land administration and public access to information, to reduce rent-seeking by land administration officers and to strengthen poor people's land rights (and knowledge thereof); Strengthen institutions in civil society to provide the awareness, monitoring, and pressure needed for successful reform and to provide checks and balances on inappropriate uses of state power; In a companion paper (WPS 2124) the author addresses these issues at the level of a particular state - Orissa, one of India ' s poorest states - in an empirical study, from a transaction costs perspective, of social exclusion and land administration. This paper - a product of the Rural Development Sector Unit, South Asia Region - is part of a larger effort in the region to promote access to land and to foster more demand-driven and socially inclusive institutions in rural development.
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Agrarian Structure
Languages : en
Pages : 56
Book Description
Abstract: May 1999 - Access to land is deeply important in rural India, where the incidence of poverty is highly correlated with lack of access to land. The author provides a framework for assessing alternative approaches to improving access to land by India's rural poor. He considers India's record implementing land reform and identifies an approach that includes incremental reforms in public land administration to reduce transaction costs in land markets (thereby facilitating land transfers) and to increase transparency, making information accessible to the public to ensure that socially excluded groups benefit. Reducing constraints on access to land for the rural poor and socially excluded requires five key issues: restrictions on land-lease markets, the fragmentation of holdings, the widespread failure to translate women's legal rights into practice, poor access to (and encroachment on) the commons, and high transaction costs for land transfers. Among guidelines for policy reform the author suggests: Selectively deregulate land-lease (rental) markets, because rental markets may be important in giving the poor access to land; Reduce transaction costs in land markets, including both official costs and informal costs (such as bribes to expedite transactions), partly by improving systems for land registration and management of land records; Critically reassess land administration agencies and find ways to improve incentive structures, to reduce rent-seeking and base promotions on performance; Promote women's independent land rights through policy measures to increase women's bargaining power within the household and in society generally; Improve transparency of land administration and public access to information, to reduce rent-seeking by land administration officers and to strengthen poor people's land rights (and knowledge thereof); Strengthen institutions in civil society to provide the awareness, monitoring, and pressure needed for successful reform and to provide checks and balances on inappropriate uses of state power; In a companion paper (WPS 2124) the author addresses these issues at the level of a particular state - Orissa, one of India ' s poorest states - in an empirical study, from a transaction costs perspective, of social exclusion and land administration. This paper - a product of the Rural Development Sector Unit, South Asia Region - is part of a larger effort in the region to promote access to land and to foster more demand-driven and socially inclusive institutions in rural development.
Gender Bias in China, South Korea and India, 1920-90
Author: Monica Das Gupta
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Discrimacion basada en el sexo - Corea
Languages : en
Pages : 39
Book Description
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Discrimacion basada en el sexo - Corea
Languages : en
Pages : 39
Book Description
Agricultural Extension
Author: Gershon Feder
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Ability
Languages : en
Pages : 38
Book Description
Abstract: May 1999 - The agriculture sector must nearly double biological yields on existing farmland to meet food needs, which will double in the next quarter century. A sustainable approach to providing agricultural extension services in developing countries-minimal external inputs, a systems orientation, pluralism, and arrangements that take advantage of the best incentives for farmers and extension service providers-will release the local knowledge, resources, common sense, and organizing ability of rural people. Is agricultural extension in developing countries up to the task of providing the information, ideas, and organization needed to meet food needs? What role should governments play in implementing or facilitating extension services? Roughly 80 percent of the world's extension is publicly funded and delivered by civil servants, providing a range of services to the farming population, commercial producers, and disadvantaged target groups. Budgetary constraints and concerns about performance create pressure to show the payoff on investment in extension and to explore alternatives to publicly providing it. Feder, Willett, and Zijp analyze the challenges facing policymakers who must decide what role governments should play in implementing or facilitating extension services. Focusing on developing country experience, they identify generic challenges that make it difficult to organize extension: The magnitude of the task; Dependence on wider policy and other agency functions; Problems in identifying the cause and effect needed to enable accountability and to get political support and funding; Liability for public service functions beyond the transfer of agricultural knowledge and information; Fiscal sustainability; Inadequate interaction with knowledge generators. Feder, Willett, and Zijp show how various extension approaches were developed in attempts to overcome the challenges of extension: Improving extension management; Decentralizing; Focusing on single commodities; Providing fee-for-service public extension services; Establishing institutional pluralism; Empowering people by using participatory approaches; Using appropriate media. Each of the approaches has weaknesses and strengths, and in their analysis the authors identify the ingredients that show promise. Rural people know when something is relevant and effective. The aspects of agricultural extension services that tend to be inherently low cost and build reciprocal, mutually trusting relationships are those most likely to produce commitment, accountability, political support, fiscal sustainability, and the kinds of effective interaction that generate knowledge. This paper-a joint product of Rural Development, Development Research Group, and the Rural Development Department-is part of a larger effort in the Bank to identify institutional and policy reforms needed to promote sustainable and equitable rural development. The authors may be contacted at [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected].
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Ability
Languages : en
Pages : 38
Book Description
Abstract: May 1999 - The agriculture sector must nearly double biological yields on existing farmland to meet food needs, which will double in the next quarter century. A sustainable approach to providing agricultural extension services in developing countries-minimal external inputs, a systems orientation, pluralism, and arrangements that take advantage of the best incentives for farmers and extension service providers-will release the local knowledge, resources, common sense, and organizing ability of rural people. Is agricultural extension in developing countries up to the task of providing the information, ideas, and organization needed to meet food needs? What role should governments play in implementing or facilitating extension services? Roughly 80 percent of the world's extension is publicly funded and delivered by civil servants, providing a range of services to the farming population, commercial producers, and disadvantaged target groups. Budgetary constraints and concerns about performance create pressure to show the payoff on investment in extension and to explore alternatives to publicly providing it. Feder, Willett, and Zijp analyze the challenges facing policymakers who must decide what role governments should play in implementing or facilitating extension services. Focusing on developing country experience, they identify generic challenges that make it difficult to organize extension: The magnitude of the task; Dependence on wider policy and other agency functions; Problems in identifying the cause and effect needed to enable accountability and to get political support and funding; Liability for public service functions beyond the transfer of agricultural knowledge and information; Fiscal sustainability; Inadequate interaction with knowledge generators. Feder, Willett, and Zijp show how various extension approaches were developed in attempts to overcome the challenges of extension: Improving extension management; Decentralizing; Focusing on single commodities; Providing fee-for-service public extension services; Establishing institutional pluralism; Empowering people by using participatory approaches; Using appropriate media. Each of the approaches has weaknesses and strengths, and in their analysis the authors identify the ingredients that show promise. Rural people know when something is relevant and effective. The aspects of agricultural extension services that tend to be inherently low cost and build reciprocal, mutually trusting relationships are those most likely to produce commitment, accountability, political support, fiscal sustainability, and the kinds of effective interaction that generate knowledge. This paper-a joint product of Rural Development, Development Research Group, and the Rural Development Department-is part of a larger effort in the Bank to identify institutional and policy reforms needed to promote sustainable and equitable rural development. The authors may be contacted at [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected].
Deep Integration, Nondiscrimination, and Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade
Author: Bernard M. Hoekman
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Bilateral Free Trade Agreement
Languages : en
Pages : 44
Book Description
Abstract: May 1999 - Preferential trade agreements that are limited to the elimination of tariffs for merchandise trade flows are of limited value at best and may be as easily welfare-reducing as welfare-enhancing. It is important that preferential trade agreements go beyond eliminating tariffs and quotas to eliminating regulatory and red tape costs and opening up service markets to foreign competition. Deep integration-explicit government actions to reduce the market-segmenting effect of domestic regulatory policies through coordination and cooperation-is becoming a major dimension of some regional integration agreements, led by the European Union. Health and safety regulations, competition laws, licensing and certification regimes, and administrative procedures such as customs clearance can affect trade (in ways analogous to nontariff barriers) even though their underlying intent may not be to discriminate against foreign suppliers of goods and services. Whether preferential trade agreements (PTAs) can be justified in a multilateral trading system depends on the extent to which formal intergovernmental agreements are technically necessary to achieve the deep integration needed to make markets more contestable. The more need for formal cooperation, the stronger the case for regional integration. Whether PTAs are justified regionally also depends on whether efforts to reduce market segmentation are applied on a nondiscriminatory basis. If innovations to reduce transaction or market access costs extend to both members and nonmembers of a PTA, regionalism as an instrument of trade and investment becomes more attractive. Using a standard competitive general equilibrium model of the Egyptian economy, Hoekman and Konan find that the static welfare impact of a deep free trade agreement is far greater than the impact that can be expected from a classic shallow agreement. Under some scenarios, welfare may increase by more than 10 percent of GDP, compared with close to zero under a shallow agreement. Given Egypt's highly diversified trading patterns, a shallow PTA with the European Union could be merely diversionary, leading to a small decline in welfare. Egypt already has duty-free access to the European Union for manufactures, so the loss in tariff revenues incurred would outweigh any new trade created. Large gains in welfare from the PTA are conditional on eliminating regulatory barriers and red tape-in which case welfare gains may be substantial: 4 to 20 percent growth in real GNP. This paper-a product of the Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the group to analyze regional integration agreements. The authors may be contacted at bhoekman@@worldbank.org or konan@@hawaii.edu.
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category : Bilateral Free Trade Agreement
Languages : en
Pages : 44
Book Description
Abstract: May 1999 - Preferential trade agreements that are limited to the elimination of tariffs for merchandise trade flows are of limited value at best and may be as easily welfare-reducing as welfare-enhancing. It is important that preferential trade agreements go beyond eliminating tariffs and quotas to eliminating regulatory and red tape costs and opening up service markets to foreign competition. Deep integration-explicit government actions to reduce the market-segmenting effect of domestic regulatory policies through coordination and cooperation-is becoming a major dimension of some regional integration agreements, led by the European Union. Health and safety regulations, competition laws, licensing and certification regimes, and administrative procedures such as customs clearance can affect trade (in ways analogous to nontariff barriers) even though their underlying intent may not be to discriminate against foreign suppliers of goods and services. Whether preferential trade agreements (PTAs) can be justified in a multilateral trading system depends on the extent to which formal intergovernmental agreements are technically necessary to achieve the deep integration needed to make markets more contestable. The more need for formal cooperation, the stronger the case for regional integration. Whether PTAs are justified regionally also depends on whether efforts to reduce market segmentation are applied on a nondiscriminatory basis. If innovations to reduce transaction or market access costs extend to both members and nonmembers of a PTA, regionalism as an instrument of trade and investment becomes more attractive. Using a standard competitive general equilibrium model of the Egyptian economy, Hoekman and Konan find that the static welfare impact of a deep free trade agreement is far greater than the impact that can be expected from a classic shallow agreement. Under some scenarios, welfare may increase by more than 10 percent of GDP, compared with close to zero under a shallow agreement. Given Egypt's highly diversified trading patterns, a shallow PTA with the European Union could be merely diversionary, leading to a small decline in welfare. Egypt already has duty-free access to the European Union for manufactures, so the loss in tariff revenues incurred would outweigh any new trade created. Large gains in welfare from the PTA are conditional on eliminating regulatory barriers and red tape-in which case welfare gains may be substantial: 4 to 20 percent growth in real GNP. This paper-a product of the Development Research Group-is part of a larger effort in the group to analyze regional integration agreements. The authors may be contacted at bhoekman@@worldbank.org or konan@@hawaii.edu.