The Lerner paradox is the possibility that a tariff on an import good might worsen a country’s terms of trade, and the Metzler paradox is the possibility that a tariff on an import good might reduce a country’s import price. In a general equilibrium framework with multiple goods, this paper shows that the combination of the invertibility of the Slutsky matrix for the world economy and its similarity across countries will preclude both of the paradoxes, and that the combination of the gross-substitutes assumption for the world demand and the substitute assumption for the demand of an import country property of goods will preclude the Lerner paradox. A modified condition for the Slutsky matrix combined with the gross substitute for the world demand will do the same for the Metzler paradox. A concept of non-surpassed diagonal is used in deriving the result.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Economic Growth Center, Yale University in its series Working Papers with number
931.
Find related papers by JEL classification: C20 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - General F02 - International Economics - - General - - - International Economic Order; Noneconomic International Organizations;; Economic Integration and Globalization: General F11 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Neoclassical Models of Trade
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: