Endogenous tariffs and trade adjustment assistance

This paper examines whether trade adjustment assistance is an effective tool for blunting political opposition to trade liberalization. The traditional argument is that adjustment assistance bribes labor unions so that they will accept reduced tariff protection. In this way, a trade adjustment assistance program should help the government lower tariffs and increase social welfare. This paper introduces trade adjustment assistance into a political economy model of endogenous tariff formation. The model shows that adjustment assistance reduces policy makers’ incentives to press for trade liberalization and may slow down the pace of reform and lower social welfare under certain plausible conditions.     

United States concessions in the Kennedy Round and short-run labour adjustment costs: Further evidence

The intent of this article is to add further empirical evidence to the frequently espoused hypothesis that the decision-making process used by U.S. tariff negotiators is heavily weighted by their assessment of the likely labor displacement effects that trade liberalization may have on domestic interests. Using data on 477 workers displaced from six different industries the results demonstrate that industries with high labor adjustment costs received greater exceptions from the across-the-board tariff cut in the Kennedy Round of the Multilateral Trade Negotiations than industries with lower adjustment costs.     

基于CGE模型定量分析国际贸易绿色壁垒对我国经济的影响——以发达国家对我国出口品征收碳关税为例

美、欧发达国家为促进本国绿色产业发展,以"碳关税"为突破口,在国际贸易中试图设置绿色壁垒。本文以剖析碳关税的潜在影响为例,建立了国际贸易壁垒对我国经济影响的系统分析框架,并利用动态可计算一般均衡模型(SIC-GE)定量测算了各方面经济影响。结果表明,碳关税对我国实体经济的影响要小于对名义价格水平的影响;对高耗能产品出口抑制作用明显,而对高附加值产品出口影响很小,甚至会有刺激作用。     

United States concessions in the Kennedy Round and short-run labor adjustment costs

This paper reports on an econometric analysis of the exemptions awarded to United States industries from the across-the-board 50 percent tariff cut imposed in the Kennedy Round. It is shown that as much as 50 percent of the inter-industry variation in reductions in nominal tariff and non-tariff rates may be accounted for by variables that proxy labor adjustment costs. In particular, certain industrial characteristics are significantly related to the Kennedy Round reductions: declining industries, and industries with a high proportion of unskilled or old workers, are associated with low reductions.     

Tariffs and capacity utilization by monopolistically competitive firms

This paper examines the effect of a tariff imposed on a monopolistically competitive (MC) sector on firm output in a 2 × 2 × 2 model with nonhomothetic technology. If the MC sector is capital intensive, then a tariff will improve the terms of trade, lower home firm demand elasticity, but raise firm output relative to foreign firms. If the MC sector is labor intensive, then excess supply for firm output may be decreasing in price, so the tariff may worsen the home country's terms of trade. Home firm demand elasticity falls but firm output rises relative to the partner country. These results qualify conclusions based on single-sector and single-country models.     

调控上网电价对稳定市场价格的政策效果实证研究

基于VAR模型和中介效应模型等定量分析手段,研究了我国上网电价波动对市场价格波动的影响效应,探索调控上网电价对稳定市场价格是否具有积极的政策效果。结果表明,上网电价的调整在滞后一期会对CPI和PPI产生负向冲击,从而抑制市场价格上涨,而随着滞后期不断增加,影响作用趋于减弱;同时,在上网电价波动影响市场价格波动的过程中,存在CPI和PPI之间相互中介效应,即存在上网电价→PPI→CPI、上网电价→CPI→PPI的影响途径。总体来看,我国调控上网电价,在一定程度上起到了稳定国内市场价格的积极作用。     

Welfare effects on the United States of a significant multilateral tariff reduction

This paper summarizes an estimate of the impact of a 50 percent multilateral tariff reduction on U.S. trade, employment, capital utilization, and economic welfare. In addition to calculating conventional measures of consumer surplus and revenue effects, the paper quantifies the economic adjustment costs faced by labor and capital-owners who are displaced by trade liberalization. Account is taken of both direct and indirect effects through utilization of the 367- sector U.S. input-output table. Some of the more interesting and important welfare dislocation estimates are highlighted on an industry-by-industry basis. In the aggregate, the calculated gains from trade liberalization dwarf the measured adjustment costs by a ratio of almost 20 to 1.     

Informality,tariffs and wealth

This article analyzes the interaction between changes in tariff protection, informality, inequality and aggregate income. First, we describe some new empirical evidence on informality, the formal/informal wage gap and trade openness in Latin American countries. Then we present a simple model characterized by three (empirically based) assumptions: (1) agents consume both formal and informal goods; (2) the government uses tariff revenues to purchase formal goods; (3) informality is a voluntary phenomenon. The model predicts that tariff reduction increases informality and wage inequality and that the maximization of income requires a positive level of tariff protection. The model's results are shown to be consistent with the empirical evidence concerning Latin American countries.     

Trade Liberalisation and the Wage Skill Premium in Korean Manufacturing Plants: Do Plants’ R&D and Investment Matter?

This paper examines the effects of output and input tariff reductions on within‐plant wage skill premium in Korean manufacturing plants. We find evidence that output tariff reduction interacts differently with plants’ R&D and investment behaviours, respectively, to affect wage skill premium. More specifically, output tariff reduction increases wage skill premium mostly in R&D‐performing plants while reducing it mostly in plants making positive facility investments. While there is weak evidence that input tariff reduction increases wage skill premium, no such interactive effects are found. One story behind our results is that, although both R&D and facility investments may respond to changes in profit opportunities due to output tariff reductions, R&D raises the relative demand for the skilled workers while facility investment, an activity of increasing production capacity, raises the relative demand for the unskilled workers.     

Factor tariffs and income

This article examines a tariff on an imported factor of production in a small, open economy with two domestic factors. Suppose the imported factor is intensive in export production, and labor in import competing production. The factor tariff would reduce export production and trade, but raise the wage. The flexibility afforded by the three factors raises the possibility that import spending might fall more than the decrease in output. That is, the factor tariff could raise income. Inelastic demand for the imported factor and a high labor share of income favor increased income.     

Trade Creation and Diversion Effects of Regional Trade Agreements: A Product‐level Analysis

This paper examines the impacts of regional trade agreements (RTAs) on trade flows at product level, with a particular focus on trade creation and diversion. Based on estimation of the gravity equation, dealing with the zero trade flows and endogeneity bias problems, we analyse the impacts of various types of RTAs involving 67 countries for 20 products during the 1980–2006 period. We find that RTAs among developing countries tend to cause trade diversion compared with RTAs among developed countries. Taking the higher external tariff rates of developing countries compared with developed countries into consideration, our results suggest trade diversion is likely to be caused by remaining high tariffs on imports from non‐members. In addition, we find the trade creation effect for many products in the cases of Customs Unions and plurilateral RTAs. These results imply that trade creation would be caused by various factors besides the reduction in tariff rates. Based on these results, we draw a policy implication that external tariff rate reduction is an important factor in avoiding trade diversion in the formation of RTAs, in particular for RTAs among developing countries, while a large number of members and the common external tariff appear to be important for generating the trade creation effect.     

台湾对大陆产品提高关税的理论模型分析——从要素收入分配扭曲效应出发的研究

台湾如果对大陆产品提高关税会扭曲岛内要素收入分配的格局。本文在一个使用两种生产要素资本和劳动并生产两种商品高技术产品和机制品的一般均衡模型中,考察短期内和长期内上述关税提高会对两种要素的收入产生怎么样的影响。本文的理论分析得出的结论是:就劳动的收入工资来说,短期内两个部门的工资都在提高,但长期内未被保护的高技术产品部门的工资反而会降低;就资本的报酬来说,短期内被保护部门机制品的资本报酬有所提高,而没有被保护部门的资本报酬反而会降低。因此,台湾提高进口关税的这种要素收入分配效应,不利于自己优势产业的发展,ECFA的实施有其经济学理念基础。     

Trade liberalization,division of labor and welfare under oligopoly

Incorporating explicitly division of labor into a two-country general oligopolistic equilibrium model, we examine the effects of trade liberalization on firm productivity and welfare. We show that a tariff reduction increases the firm productivity of the trading industries but decreases that of the non-trading industries. An expansion of the trading industries, in contrast, decreases the firm productivity of both the trading and non-trading industries. We then find that a tariff reduction necessarily reduces welfare while the welfare effect of expansion of trading industries is ambiguous.     

中国工业贸易有效保护水平与结构——基于2006年关税数据的实证分析

本文在对关税有效保护率进行理论分析的基础上,对我国36个工业贸易部门2006年的关税有效保护水平和结构进行了实证分析。实证结果表明,我国工业部门的关税有效保护率呈现出了从上游产品到下游产品逐渐升高的阶梯型分布,总体结构比较合理,但是与比较优势的动态变化和产业结构调整的方向还存在不相适应的地方。本文就此提出了进一步优化我国关税有效保护结构的政策建议。     

How and how far to liberalize a developing economy with informal sector and factor market distortions

Whether a liberalizing developing economy should implement the entire WTO-prescribed package, and to what extent this is expedient, are two important questions, especially because the available empirical evidence suggests that developing countries have been facing substantial adjustment costs in their endeavour to implement trade and investment reform. The present paper makes a humble effort to provide answers to the above questions in terms of a three-sector general equilibrium model with informal sectors. Welfare implications of three liberalization policies: inflow of foreign capital, tariff reduction and labour market reform, have first been analysed in a full-employment framework. Later, the paper has been extended into a Harris?–?Todaro framework with an urban informal sector and capital market distortion. We have shown that welfare consequences of a tariff reform and/or a policy of deregulating the labour market crucially depend on the presence and magnitude of foreign capital in the economy. It is argued here that unless a proper choice among different prescribed policies, compatible with the internal institutional, technological and trade-related characteristics, is made, drastic implementation of reform measures may produce counterproductive results for the welfare of the relevant country.     

Preference Erosion,Government Revenues and Non‐tariff Trade Barriers

Developing countries benefiting from developed country unilateral trade preferences fear that Doha Round tariff cuts will erode the value of those preferences. That these programmes confer significant benefits, however, is not clear. Studies indicate that the impact of preference erosion would be minimal for most developing countries. But for a small subset of middle‐income and least‐developed countries, concern may be warranted. WTO members, should address affected countries’ concerns, perhaps by tailoring WTO tariff negotiations to lessen adjustment pressures and providing development assistance. Developing countries also are anxious that lower tariffs will reduce government revenues. Dependence on tariff revenue is diminishing and trade liberalisation need not result in lower total tax revenues or even lower customs revenues. Much depends on a country's current tariff and trade regime, its tax structure and its overall economic structure. At some point, a country does need to broaden its tax base and look to other revenue sources to offset declining tariff revenues. Tax reform, therefore, complements trade reform. A third area of developing country concern is non‐tariff barriers (NTBs), which may limit market access even after tariffs are reduced. Despite prior WTO work in this area, NTBs remain a thorny issue for all WTO members.     

The Salmon-Agreement Between Norway and the European Union—A Welfare Economic Analysis

The relationship between tariff policy and anti-dumping use is empirically examined. Using a panel dataset of 56 countries over the period of 1995–2007, the effects of tariff liberalization on anti-dumping use are found to vary across world regions. For European countries, as well as developed North American and Latin American countries, a lower tariff rate appears to induce more use of anti-dumping measures, which emerge as a protection tool among trade liberalization regimes. In contrast, a reduction in a tariff rate leads to lower anti-dumping use in developing North American and Latin American countries and in developed Asian, African, and Middle Eastern countries. In terms of initiating anti-dumping action, developed countries are likely to be more sensitive than developing countries to tariff policy change in most regions of the world.     

The choice of appropriate technology in a general equilibrium model

This paper analyzes the general equilibrium aspects related to the choice of technology. The paper studies the problem from the perspective of a small, labor abundant open economy that does not generate its own technology. The economic planners must choose between two technologies, one better geared toward the production of labor intensive goods, the other to capital intensive goods. It is shown that the choice of technology not only will affect the welfare level, but it can also reverse the pattern of international trade. It is also shown that the imposition of a tariff can lead the planner to choose a different technology from the one that is optimal under free trade.     

Tariff structure and output adjustment in the presence of interindustry flows

This paper investigates the adjustment of gross and net outputs to a change in tariff structure in models involving interindustry flows. Various conditions for the normal price-gross-output relationship are derived in a two-good, two-primary-factor model. These conditions are expressed in terms of the degree and also the patterns of substitutability and complementarity between different inputs. In the special case where the produced input is not used in its own production, the paper shows that the abnormal relationship between prices and gross outputs can occur only if the two primary factors are complements to each other and their degree of complementarity is sufficiently high. Finally, the response of net outputs due to a change in tariff structure is explored in a general model allowing arbitrary numbers of goods and primary factors.     

Tariffs and formation of free trade agreements networks

This paper examines the formation of bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) on the basis of country heterogeneity in the tariff level. We demonstrate that a country's unilateral incentive to form an FTA depends on the relative magnitudes of the (negative) market concession effect and the (positive) market expansion effect, both of which are determined by the tariff levels of the two FTA partner countries. Global welfare is maximised when all country pairs form FTAs. Two countries in equilibrium are more likely to form an FTA when their tariff gap is smaller or when their tariff levels are neither very high nor very low. This finding is robust to several extensions of the model. Our preliminary empirical analysis provides some evidence for the finding.