Trade Openness and Economic Growth: A Review of the Literature

This study surveys the available empirical literature on the relationship between trade openness and economic growth. The motivation to the current study stems from the persistent conflicting results mostly on the empirical side, which have created confusion among the researchers and policy makers over the trade-growth relationship. Overall, this paper concludes that the available literature provides an affirmative answer to the question whether or not trade openness causes economic growth. However, various issues still exist in the current literature, which need appropriate approach to handle them, in order to establish an explicit relationship between trade openness and economic growth.