implemented by firms and associations and sharing information on good practices and effective models of public-private partnerships that aim to leverage trade opportunities.

4. Joint action **_to provide dedicated financial support for a concerted program of monitoring and evaluation of aid for trade_** anchored in systematic data collection and research. All donors and recipients recognize the importance of monitoring and evaluation and analysis of trade outcomes and performance. The OECD is taking the lead in coordinating efforts to share the results of monitoring and evaluation by donors and agencies and to learn from experience. There is, however, no dedicated funding to ensure consistent _cross-country_ collection of data on trade outcomes and their determinants on a comparable basis. While much knowledge is generated through ex post evaluation of projects, this does not result in datasets that allow for benchmarking of countries and tracking of performance over time. A concerted effort is needed to ensure that data are collected to allow the impacts of policy reform efforts and interventions to be compared across countries and over time. This will require agreement among governments and agencies on the specific indicators for which data should be compiled. Candidates include measures of trade costs – e.g., clearance/waiting times; the number of times that trucks are stopped along transport corridors; rejection or inspection rates of consignments at borders; trade diversification; and trade and investment policies (e.g., restrictiveness of service sector policies and the prevalence and intensity of nontariff measures).

# **References**

- Abe, Kazutomo and John S. Wilson. 2008. “Trade, Transparency, and Welfare in the Asia Pacific,” _Journal of International Economic Studies_ 12(2): 35-78.

- Abe, Kazutomo and John S. Wilson, 2009. “Weathering the Storm: Investing in Port Infrastructure to Lower Trade Costs in East Asia,” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4911.

- Arvin, M., Cater, B. and S. Choudry. 2000. “A causality analysis of untied foreign assistance and export performance: the case of Germany,” _Applied Economic Letters_ , 7:315-319.

- Arvis, Jean-Francois and Gael Rabbaland. 2010. _The Cost of Being Landlocked._ Washington DC: World Bank, forthcoming.

- Arvis, J.F. and others. 2010. _Connecting Landlocked Countries to Markets._ Washington DC: World Bank, forthcoming.

- Borchert, Ingo, Batshur Gootiiz, Arti Grover, and Aaditya Mattoo. 2010. “Landlocked or Policy Locked? The Effect of Services Policy Restrictiveness on Service Sector Performance,” World Bank: unpublished manuscript.

- Bouët, A _.,_ D. Laborde, E. Dienesch and K. Elliott. 2010. “The Costs and Benefits of Duty-Free, Quota-Free Market Access for Poor Countries: Who and What Matters?,” Washington DC: Center for Global Development Working Paper 206.

- Brenton, Paul, and Erik von Uexkull. 2009. “Product Specific Technical Assistance for Exports-Has it been Effective?” _The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development_ , 18(2): 235-54.

- Bruhn, Miriam and David McKenzie, 2008. “In pursuit of balance: randomization in practice in development field experiments,” World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4752.

- Cali, Massimiliano and Dirk Willem te Velde, 2008. “Towards a Quantitative Assessment of Aid for Trade,” London: Commonwealth Secretariat.

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