Luciano Cohan

This dataset includes yearly information of Measure of Aggregate Trade Restrictions (MATR), using data from the IMF’s Annual Report on Exchange Arrangements and Exchange Restrictions.. MATR is an empirical measure of how restrictive official government policy is towards the international flow of goods and services. MATR is based on the IMF’s AREAER binary variables related to (i) exchange measures; (ii) arrangements for payments and receipts; (iii) imports and imports payments; (iv) exports and exports proceeds, and (v) payment and proceeds from invisible transfers and current transfers. This simplest version of MATR is the unweighted sum of up to 22 possible variables. Each subindicator is scored as 1 if a restriction is present in a particular country for a particular year, and 0 otherwise.

Aggregate Trade Restrictions

MATR is an empirical measure of how restrictive official government policy is towards the international flow of goods and services. MATR is simple, ad hoc, plausible, quantitative, easily updated, based solely on policy-relevant measures of trade policy, and covers an unbalanced sample of about 157 countries annually between 1949 and 2020. MATR is also strongly correlated with existing measures of openness and trade policy but more comprehensive than existing measures. We use MATR to show that trade restrictions are harmful for the economy and lead to significant contractions in output.

Measure of Aggregate Trade Restrictions (MATR)

Aggregate Trade Restrictions Alphacast / Measure of Aggregate Trade Restrictions (MATR)

Aggregate Trade Restrictions

Alphacast /
Measure of Aggregate Trade Restrictions (MATR)