Trade liberalization and growth: a quantile moderator for Hoyos’ (2021) replication study of Estevadeordal and Taylor (2013)

We examine whether Hoyos’ (Empir Econ, 2021) critical replication of Estevadeordal and Taylor (Rev Econ Stat 95(5):1669–1690, 2013) that dealt with trade liberalization and growth, does provide, as the author claims, clear evidence that the estimation results and the conclusions of the original should be discarded, the first as “non-robust,” the second as relying on the former. We find that robustness is indeed an issue. We correct for it using quantile regression and we obtain results that explain both papers and support a modified argument that tariff reduction in the 1990’s contributed to growth acceleration, when other determinants of growth were conducive to such acceleration.