Openness and governance: Evidence across countries

The trade and governance literature suggest a link between the openness of an economy to international trade and the quality of its governance. The paper tests this link using a data set on governance that is multidimensional and broad in cross-country coverage. The results provide evidence that the quality of governance is significantly related to openness in international trade. This association is robust to alternative specifications, different indicators of openness and governance, and prevails for different sub-samples.