Welfare and market-access effects of piecemeal tariff reforms on environmentally preferable products

We examine how welfare and market access are affected by piecemeal tariff reforms on environmentally preferable products (EPP) in a small open economy. We define EPP as clean goods that, when consumed, have no impact on pollution. First, we show that a uniform reduction of all tariffs improves welfare if a country’s imports consist only of clean goods. If a clean good is a net substitute for all other goods in excess demand, then reducing the highest tariff on the clean good improves welfare. Second, we show that a proportional tariff reduction leading to a welfare improvement also increases the value of imports if all tariffs are set at the same ad valorem rates. If the clean good is a net substitute for all other goods in excess demand, then reducing the lowest tariff on the clean good increases the value of imports. Finally, we explore the link between the change in welfare and the change in the value of imports in response to the tariff reforms, and we show that unlike a proportional tariff reduction, a tariff reduction on the clean good does not necessarily lead to improvements in both welfare and market access.     

Market access implications of non‐tariff measures: Estimates for four developed country markets

We quantify the effects of non‐tariff measures on the extensive margin of trade, examining the number of countries exporting particular products to Canada, the European Union, New Zealand and the United States. We find that non‐tariff measures that impose a conformity requirement, that is, testing, certification or inspection, will reduce the number of countries exporting to these markets. Conformity requirements imposed for sanitary or phytosanitary reasons have the largest effect in Canada, reducing the number of exporting countries by 47% compared to the situation where no compliance requirement is imposed. Conformity requirements imposed for other reasons covered by the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade have the largest effect in Canada and New Zealand, reducing the number of exporting countries by 27% compared to the situation where no compliance requirement is imposed. However, we generally find a statistically significant positive effect for nontariff measures that do not impose a compliance burden, suggesting that such measures may facilitate trade.     

The effects of market structure characteristics on competitive reaction intensity: A longitudinal analysis

This study explores the effects of market structure characteristics and exogenous market interventions on competitive reaction intensity over time. It is found that moderate growth rate and moderate concentration induce greater competitive reactions. The effect of the exogenous intervention in the industry studied appears to have a dampening impact on competitive responses. Our research inquiry addresses some issues raised on competition, in general, by Weitz (1985) and specifically on competitive responses by Robinson (1988) and Gatignon, Anderson, and Helsen (1989). The authors express their appreciation to Lee Cooper, Imran Currim, Hubert Gatignon, Avijit Ghosh, Jagmohan Singh Raju and Bill Robinson for their helpful comments and to Mark Parry for his computer programming assistance. The authors gratefully acknowledge research support from the College of Business Administration, University of Georgia, and Graduate School of Management, Rutgers University.     

The effect of concentration and market power on food prices: evidence from Finland

This research examines empirically the relationship between economies of scale, concentration, and market power in food retailing. With unique, local market data available Finland, the analysis could investigate the impact of both local concentration and industry-wide concentration (which can be interpreted as multimarket contact) are taken into account in the evaluation of grocery retail competitiveness. The results show that the main factor affecting market power is the size of the retail firm. Larger share grocery retailers, for both the local and the national markets, carried higher mark-ups. At the same time, no firm-level scale economies were found from these larger firms. I conclude from these findings that the main purpose of large grocery retail mergers is to gain market power not efficiency.     

Effects of multilateral and preferential trade policy reform in Africa: The case of Uganda

Abstract

This paper estimates the effects on production, trade and economic welfare of current trade policy regimes throughout the world on Uganda relative to other economies. This will be a benchmark against which to examine various multilateral and preferential trade policy scenarios that might emerge over the next decade as part of the WTO's Doha Round and from the expected move later this decade towards Economic Partnership Agreements with the European Union. The results suggest modest gains or worse for Uganda, in part because it already has low tariffs and ready preferential access to rich-country markets. Several important caveats to this type of analysis are stressed though, before drawing out some trade and policy implications for Uganda.     

Productivity, indexation and macroeconomic outcomes: The implications of goods market competition and wage bargaining structure

One strand of the macroeconomics literature explores the extent to which the indexation of nominal wages to a variable in addition to the price level can improve macroeconomic performance. The present paper contributes to this literature by developing a model in which the nominal wage is indexed not only to the price level but also to productivity. Two key features of the framework are a monopolistically competitive goods market and a unionized labor market in which wages are determined by a finite number of unions. A significant finding is that the multiparameter indexation scheme generally outperforms full-information wage setting.     

Founder management and the market for corporate control for IPO firms: The moderating effect of the power structure of the firm

This study draws on agency and stewardship theory to evaluate the relationship between alternative governance regimes (founder versus non-founder CEO) adopted at the time of going public on post-IPO economic outcomes in the market for corporate control. We find that the presence of founder CEOs reduces the likelihood of post-IPO change of control but enhances target IPO firm wealth by increasing acquisition premiums. Additionally, we examine whether measures of CEO power over the board moderate the relationship between founder management and target IPO firm wealth. Our results suggest that CEO duality is the most effective instrument of CEO power available to founder CEOs to positively influence target firm wealth. Further, we find that while founder CEOs utilize power derived from CEO duality to increase acquisition premiums, non-founder CEOs use board leadership power to expropriate shareholder wealth.