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Trade, Investment and Tourism: A Global Evidence Map - Dataset

By Knowledge and Learning Division (VPS/VPS/KLD); Productivity, Trade and Innovation Sector (VPS/PTI/PTI); Trade and Investment Division (VPS/PTI/TIN)

International trade, foreign direct investment, and tourism are important drivers of economic growth, productivity, and job creation. In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), persistent trade barriers, limited integration into global markets, and challenges in attracting investment and strengthening tourism competitiveness constrain opportunities for economic diversification and sustainable development.

This Evidence Map presents global effectiveness evidence on interventions related to trade facilitation, export promotion, foreign direct investment attraction, and tourism development. It covers a broad range of policies and programs, including regulatory and institutional reforms, digitalization, investment incentives, firm support, and destination development and management.

This map compiles, curates, and classifies studies that estimate causal effects, identifying where evidence is concentrated and where important gaps remain. It aims to help decision-makers assess the available evidence on policies and programs, identify priorities for future research, and support evidence-informed decisions that strengthen competitiveness, foster economic opportunities, and promote sustainable and inclusive development in LAC and beyond.

What the data covers

Interventions fall under four domains: trade facilitation; export promotion; attraction of foreign direct investment; and tourism. Outcomes fall under six: access; quality; affordability; service management; sector governance; and socio-economic outcomes. Each domain resolves into named interventions and outcomes. Every study records the regions and countries it examined and the income levels of those countries. Coverage is global rather than regional: most of the available evidence comes from outside Latin America and the Caribbean. Studies published through March 2026 are included.

What it contains

Impact evaluations and systematic reviews, in two tables that share a column layout. Each study carries its citation, journal quartile and open-access status, the evaluation design and method it used, its coded interventions and outcomes, and an effectiveness rating for each outcome. The two framework hierarchies are published as tables of their own, with a description of every category. Three data dictionaries document the columns of the study and framework tables, and the review protocol is published as a PDF.

How the data was collected

This is a secondary synthesis and contains no new fieldwork. Studies were identified through a search of Scopus and of grey-literature sources, including the repositories of international organizations and development agencies, under the search strategy and the inclusion and exclusion criteria set out in the review protocol. Screening, full-text retrieval, coding and data extraction were carried out with an in-house pipeline that applies the protocol's eligibility criteria through structured prompts to large language models, benchmarked against gold-standard samples screened and coded by trained reviewers. The impact evaluations are experiments and quasi-experiments; the systematic reviews are syntheses of those literatures.

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Metadata & use

Identifier https://doi.org/10.60966/x79x0imn
License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Citation

Acosta, Camilo, et al. (2026). Trade, Investment and Tourism: A Global Evidence Map - Dataset. IDB Open Data. https://doi.org/10.60966/x79x0imn
Published date 2026-10-28
Modified date 2026-10-28
Tags/Keywords International Trade · Foreign Direct Investment · Tourism · Export Promotion · Trade Facilitation · Policy · Evidence · Literature · Gaps
Language
  1. English
Temporal coverage 2006-2026
Country
Rwanda
Somalia
Yemen
Saudi Arabia
Iran
Cyprus
Tanzania
Armenia
Kenya
Congo - Kinshasa
Djibouti
Uganda
Central African Republic
Seychelles
Jordan
Lebanon
Oman
Bahrain
United Arab Emirates
Israel
Türkiye
Ethiopia
Eritrea
Egypt
Sudan
Greece
Burundi
Estonia
Latvia
Azerbaijan
Lithuania
Georgia
Moldova
Belarus
Finland
Ukraine
North Macedonia
Hungary
Bulgaria
Albania
Poland
Romania
Kosovo
Zimbabwe
Zambia
Malawi
Lesotho
Botswana
Mauritius
South Africa
Mozambique
Madagascar
Afghanistan
Pakistan
Bangladesh
Turkmenistan
Tajikistan
Sri Lanka
Bhutan
India
Maldives
Nepal
Myanmar (Burma)
Uzbekistan
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Vietnam
Thailand
Indonesia
Laos
Taiwan
Philippines
Malaysia
China
Hong Kong SAR China
Brunei
Macao SAR China
Cambodia
South Korea
Japan
Singapore
Russia
Mongolia
Australia
Papua New Guinea
Solomon Islands
Vanuatu
New Zealand
Fiji
Cameroon
Senegal
Congo - Brazzaville
Portugal
Liberia
Côte d’Ivoire
Ghana
Equatorial Guinea
Nigeria
Burkina Faso
Togo
Guinea-Bissau
Mauritania
Benin
Gabon
Sierra Leone
Gambia
Guinea
Chad
Niger
Mali
Tunisia
Spain
Morocco
Malta
Algeria
Denmark
United Kingdom
Switzerland
Sweden
Netherlands
Austria
Belgium
Germany
Luxembourg
Ireland
France
Slovakia
Czechia
Norway
Italy
Slovenia
Montenegro
Croatia
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Angola
Namibia
Barbados
Cape Verde
Guyana
Paraguay
Uruguay
Brazil
Dominican Republic
Belize
El Salvador
Guatemala
Honduras
Nicaragua
Costa Rica
Venezuela
Ecuador
Colombia
Panama
Haiti
Argentina
Chile
Bolivia
Peru
Mexico
Samoa
Puerto Rico
Canada
United States
Palestinian Territories
Serbia
Publisher
Inter-American Development Bank
Author
Acosta, Camilo
Rucci, Graciana
Gerardino, Maria Paula
Porto, Indira
Salazar, Andrés
Santi, Mariana
Anauati, Victoria
Gómez, Denise
Querubín, Cristina
Gómez, Dalila
Data collection type Administrative Data
Statistical type Cross-sectional Data
Data structure Structured Data
Dataset unit of observation

Publication
Data notes

What is this dataset?

It is an evidence map of the studies that evaluate trade, investment and tourism interventions. The IDB's Knowledge and Learning Division, Productivity, Trade and Innovation Sector and Trade and Investment Division built it, following a review protocol published with the data. Every study is coded onto a two-dimensional framework of interventions and outcomes, so the areas where evidence has accumulated, and the areas where none was identified, can be read off directly. It records which studies exist and what they measured; it does not pool them into a combined estimate of effect.

What does it contain?

The studies themselves, separated into impact evaluations and systematic reviews, and the two framework hierarchies used to code them, each with a description of every category. Three data dictionaries document the columns, and the review protocol accompanies the data as a PDF.

How is the evidence classified?

Along two axes, each of them a hierarchy. Interventions run from a top-level domain (trade facilitation, export promotion, attraction of foreign direct investment, and tourism) to a named intervention, such as border management and infrastructure, trade finance instruments for exporters, investment incentives and special regimes, or tourism market development and destination management. Outcomes are built the same way, under access, quality, affordability, service management, sector governance and socio-economic outcomes, and cover among others the extensive and intensive margins of trade, foreign direct investment, visitor flows, firm entry and formality, income and productivity, labour market outcomes, fiscal revenue, household welfare and environmental quality. A study can carry several interventions and several outcomes, each in its own numbered column, and every outcome carries an effectiveness rating: positive, mixed, negative or not significant.

Which countries and regions are covered?

The map is global rather than regional: most of the available evidence comes from outside Latin America and the Caribbean. Each study records the regions and countries it examined and the income levels of those countries.

What time period does it cover?

Studies published from 2006 through March 2026.

How was the evidence identified and screened?

Through a search of Scopus and of grey-literature sources, under the search strategy and the inclusion and exclusion criteria set out in the review protocol, which is published alongside the data as a PDF. Screening, coding and data extraction were carried out with an in-house pipeline that applies the protocol's criteria through structured prompts to large language models, benchmarked against samples screened and coded by trained reviewers. The protocol also defines the intervention and outcome framework.

How do the tables fit together?

The two study tables share a column layout, so impact evaluations and systematic reviews can be read the same way and stacked on the study identifier. The data dictionaries key to the column names of the tables they document.

How can it be used?

To find the studies that measure a particular intervention and outcome pair, and to see where evidence on trade, investment and tourism is concentrated and where none was identified, before commissioning new research or designing a programme.

In what format is it available, and under what licence?

As a set of tables in the IDB Open Data DataStore, browsable online and downloadable as CSV, with the review protocol as a PDF. It is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence, which allows reuse and adaptation provided the source is credited.

How do I cite it?

Use the citation shown on this page, which names the authors, the dataset title, IDB Open Data as the publisher, and the dataset's persistent identifier.

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