IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kea/keappr/ker-20160630-32-1-04.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Most Favored Nation Principle: Passive Constraint or Active Commitment?

Author

Listed:
  • Jeongmeen Suh

    (Soongsil Unive)

  • Sihoon Nahm

    (University of Chicago)

  • Seung-Gyu Sim

    (University of Tokyo)

Abstract

This study examines how the welfare implication of the ��most-favored-nation�� (MFN) principle changed when the trade agreement mode shifted from a ��one-shot-multilateral-trade-agreement�� to ��sequential-bilateral-trade-agreements.��It emphasizes that the MFN principle works as ��passive constraints��in the former but ��active commitments��in the latter. Under the sequential-bilateral-trade-agreements , (i) an importing country strategically takes a cost-efficient country as its first (second) trading partner when the MFN principle is (not) embedded, and (ii) embedding the MFN clause improves the trade surplus of the importing country and the world economy. The MFN principle is utilized by the cost-efficient country as a commitment device to encourage production. This principle reverses the welfare implication in the existing literature. Finally, the importing country prefers the sequential agreements with the MFN clause to other cases in which it can choose simultaneous or sequential agreements with/without the MFN clause

Suggested Citation

  • Jeongmeen Suh & Sihoon Nahm & Seung-Gyu Sim, 2016. "The Most Favored Nation Principle: Passive Constraint or Active Commitment?," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 32, pages 77-99.
    • Handle: RePEc:kea:keappr:ker-20160630-32-1-04
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://keapaper.kea.ne.kr/RePEc/kea/keappr/KER-20160630-32-1-04.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Seidmann, Daniel J., 2009. "Preferential trading arrangements as strategic positioning," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 143-159, September.
    2. Sébastien Miroudot & Jehan Sauvage & Marie Sudreau, 2010. "Multilateralising Regionalism: How Preferential Are Services Commitments in Regional Trade Agreements?," OECD Trade Policy Papers 106, OECD Publishing.
    3. Brander, James A. & Spencer, Barbara J., 1984. "Trade warfare: Tariffs and cartels," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3-4), pages 227-242, May.
    4. Hong Hwang & Chao-Cheng Mai, 1991. "Optimum Discriminatory Tariffs under Oligopolistic Competition," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 24(3), pages 693-702, August.
    5. Fabian Herweg & Daniel Müller, 2012. "Price Discrimination in Input Markets: Downstream Entry and Efficiency," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 773-799, September.
    6. Aghion, Philippe & Antras, Pol & Helpman, Elhanan, 2007. "Negotiating free trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 1-30, September.
    7. Yoshihiro Yoshida, 2000. "Third-Degree Price Discrimination in Input Markets: Output and Welfare," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(1), pages 240-246, March.
    8. Kim, Hyunchul & Sim, Seung-Gyu, 2015. "Price discrimination and sequential contracting in monopolistic input markets," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 39-42.
    9. Bagwell, Kyle & Staiger, Robert W., 2010. "Backward stealing and forward manipulation in the WTO," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 49-62, September.
    10. Choi, Jay Pil, 1995. "Optimal tariffs and the choice of technology Discriminatory tariffs vs. the 'Most Favored Nation' clause," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(1-2), pages 143-160, February.
    11. Gatsios, Konstantine, 1990. "Preferential tariffs and the 'most favoured nation' principle: A note," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3-4), pages 365-373, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kamal Saggi & Woan Foong Wong & Halis Murat Yildiz, 2022. "The role of non‐discrimination in a world of discriminatory preferential trade agreements," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(1), pages 174-212, February.
    2. Kangsik Choi & Seonyoung Lim, 2023. "Sequential tariffs with increasing marginal costs," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 91(4), pages 336-360, July.
    3. Kyle Bagwell & Chad P. Bown & Robert W. Staiger, 2016. "Is the WTO Passé?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(4), pages 1125-1231, December.
    4. Saggi, Kamal & Wong, Woan Foong & Yildiz, Halis Murat, 2017. "Preferential Trade Agreements and Rules of the Multilateral Trading System," MPRA Paper 76330, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Wang, Xingtang, 2022. "Input price discrimination, pricing contract and social welfare," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 91-96.
    6. Youping Li, 2017. "Differential Pricing in Intermediate Good Markets," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(3), pages 585-596, September.
    7. Hong-Ren Din & Kuang-Cheng Andy Wang & Wen-Jung Liang, 2016. "MFN vs Tariff Discrimination in the Presence of Cross Ownership," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(5), pages 1149-1166, November.
    8. Saggi, Kamal & Yildiz, Halis Murat, 2005. "The Case for MFN under Asymmetries of Cost and Market Structure," MPRA Paper 76331, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Lee, Ki-Dong & Choi, Kangsik, 2023. "Optimal tariffs with endogenous vertical structure: Uniform versus discriminatory tariffs," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 35-50.
    10. Kangsik Choi & DongJoon Lee & Seonyoung Lim, 2022. "A Note on Input Price Discrimination Under Bertrand Competition: Simultaneous vs. Sequential Contracting," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 61(2), pages 223-246, September.
    11. Theodore To, 1999. "Dynamics and Discriminatory Import Policy," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 32(4), pages 1057-1068, August.
    12. repec:smu:ecowpa:1403 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. James Lake, 2017. "Free Trade Agreements As Dynamic Farsighted Networks," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(1), pages 31-50, January.
    14. Lake, James & Yildiz, Halis M., 2016. "On the different geographic characteristics of Free Trade Agreements and Customs Unions," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 213-233.
    15. Jong-Hee Hahn & Chan KIm, 2018. "Input price discrimination with differentiated final products," Working papers 2018rwp-118, Yonsei University, Yonsei Economics Research Institute.
    16. Chin-Sheng Chen, 2017. "Price Discrimination in Input Markets and Quality Differentiation," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 50(3), pages 367-388, May.
    17. Brito, Duarte & Tselekounis, Markos & Vasconcelos, Helder, 2019. "Input price discrimination in the presence of downstream vertical differentiation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    18. Maggi, Giovanni, 2014. "International Trade Agreements," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 317-390, Elsevier.
    19. James Lake, 2016. "Why don't more countries form Customs Unions instead of Free Trade Agreements? The role of flexibility," Departmental Working Papers 1601, Southern Methodist University, Department of Economics.
    20. Ioannis N. Pinopoulos, 2020. "Input Price Discrimination and Upstream R&D Investments," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 57(1), pages 85-106, August.
    21. Uğur Akgün & Ioana Chioveanu, 2019. "Wholesale price discrimination: Innovation incentives and upstream competition," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 510-519, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Most-Favored-Nation Principle; Sequential Trade Agreements; Commitment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kea:keappr:ker-20160630-32-1-04. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: KEA (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/keaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.