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The cost of compliance with product standards for firms in developing countries: an econometric study

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Author Info
Maskus, Keith E.
Otsuki, Tsunehiro
Wilson, John S.

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Abstract

Standards and technical regulations exist to protect consumer safety or to achieve other goals, such as ensuring the interoperability of telecommunications systems, for example. Standards and technical regulations can, however, raise substantially both start-up and production costs for firms. Maskus, Otsuki, and Wilson develop econometric models to provide the first estimates of the incremental production costs for firms in developing nations in conforming to standards imposed by major importing countries. They use firm-level data generated from 16 developing countries in the World Bank Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Survey Database. Their findings indicate that standards do increase short-run production costs by requiring additional inputs of labor and capital. A 1 percent increase in investment to meet compliance costs in importing countries raises variable production costs by between 0.06 and 0.13 percent, a statistically significant increase. The authors also find that the fixed costs of compliance are nontrivial-approximately $425,000 per firm, or about 4.7 percent of value added on average. The results may be interpreted as one indication of the extent to which standards and technical regulations might constitute barriers to trade. While the relative impact on costs of compliance is relatively small, these costs can be decisive factors driving export success for companies. In this context, there is scope for considering that the costs associated with more limited exports to countries with import regulations may not conform to World Trade Organization rules encouraging harmonization of regulations to international standards, for example. Policy solutions then might be sought by identifying the extent to which subsidies or public support programs are needed to offset the cost disadvantage that arises from nonharmonized technical regulations.

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Paper provided by The World Bank in its series Policy Research Working Paper Series with number 3590.

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Date of creation: 01 May 2005
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Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3590

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Keywords: Environmental Economics&Policies; Economic Theory&Research; Health Economics&Finance; Administrative&Regulatory Law; Science Education;

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  1. Gasiorek, Michael & Smith, Alasdair & Venables, Anthony J., 1992. "`1992': Trade and Welfare; A General Equilibrium Model," CEPR Discussion Papers 672, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Jones, Philip & Hudson, John, 1996. "Standardization and the costs of assessing quality," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 355-361, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Swann, Peter & Temple, Paul & Shurmer, Mark, 1996. "Standards and Trade Performance: The UK Experience," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(438), pages 1297-1313, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Berndt, Ernst R & Wood, David O, 1975. "Technology, Prices, and the Derived Demand for Energy," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 57(3), pages 259-68, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Berndt, Ernst R. & Hesse, Dieter M., 1986. "Measuring and assessing capacity utilization in the manufacturing sectors of nine oecd countries," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 961-989, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Wilson, John S. & Otsuki, Tsunehiro, 2004. "To spray or not to spray: pesticides, banana exports, and food safety," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 131-146, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Fischer, Ronald & Serra, Pablo, 2000. "Standards and protection," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 377-400, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen, 2000. "Understanding Increasing and Decreasing Wage Inequality," NBER Chapters, in: The Impact of International Trade on Wages, pages 227-268 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!]
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  10. Harrigan, James, 1997. "Technology, Factor Supplies, and International Specialization: Estimating the Neoclassical Model," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(4), pages 475-94, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Otsuki, Tsunehiro & Wilson, John S. & Sewadeh, Mirvat, 2001. "Saving two in a billion: : quantifying the trade effect of European food safety standards on African exports," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 495-514, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  1. Anders, Sven & Caswell, Julie A., 2006. "Assessing the Impact of Stricter Food Safety Standards on Trade: HACCP in U.S. Seafood Trade with the Developing World," 2006 Annual meeting, July 23-26, Long Beach, CA 21338, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association). [Downloadable!]
  2. Michael A. Peet & Steven F. Koch, 2005. "Technical Barriers to Trade Faced by South African SMME'S," Working Papers 200517, University of Pretoria, Department of Economics.
  3. Juan Carlos Hallak & Jagadeesh Sivadasan, 2009. "Firms' Exporting Behavior under Quality Constraints," NBER Working Papers 14928, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Sven Anders & Julie Caswell, 2007. "Standards-as-Barriers versus Standards-as-Catalysts: Assessing the Impact of HACCP Implementation on U.S. Seafood Imports," Working Papers 2007-7, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Resource Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Mélise Jaud & Olivier Cadot & Akiko Suwa-Eisenmann, 2009. "Do food scares explain supplier concentration? An analysis of EU agri-food imports," PSE Working Papers 2009-28, PSE (Ecole normale supérieure). [Downloadable!]
  6. Juan Carlos Hallak, 2006. "A Product-Quality View of the Linder Hypothesis," NBER Working Papers 12712, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Gabriel Sánchez & María Laura Alzúa & Inés Butler, 2008. "Impact of Technical Barriers to Trade on Argentine Exports and Labor Markets," Working Papers 0079, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata. [Downloadable!]
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