IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ses/arsjes/2004-iv-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Learning from Financial Markets: Auctioning Tariff-Rate Quotas in Agricultural Trade

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Jörin
  • Yvan Lengwiler

Abstract

Most tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) around the world are allocated in rather intransparent ways. Yet, according to the fundamental WTO principles, TRQs are supposed to be allocated in a transparent, equitable and non-discriminatory manner. We argue that auctions offer a promising way to achieve these goals, and at the same time enhance the efficiency of the allocation. Moreover, they provide the means to slowly phase out a quota regime in favor of a tariff-only regime. The biggest challenge in this endeavour is to find an auctioning procedure that operates also well in situations otherwise prone to collusive bidding behavior. We draw from experiences made in government debt auctions to come up with a system that would be resistant to collusion.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Jörin & Yvan Lengwiler, 2004. "Learning from Financial Markets: Auctioning Tariff-Rate Quotas in Agricultural Trade," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 140(IV), pages 521-541, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:ses:arsjes:2004-iv-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sjes.ch/papers/2004-IV-3.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. LiCalzi, Marco & Pavan, Alessandro, 2005. "Tilting the supply schedule to enhance competition in uniform-price auctions," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 227-250, January.
    2. Richard T. Rogers & Richard J. Sexton, 1994. "Assessing the Importance of Oligopsony Power in Agricultural Markets," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 76(5), pages 1143-1150.
    3. Steve McCorriston, 1996. "Import Quota Licenses and Market Power," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 78(2), pages 367-372.
    4. Jegadeesh, Narasimhan, 1993. "Treasury Auction Bids and the Salomon Squeeze," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(4), pages 1403-1419, September.
    5. Mr. Robert A Feldman & Mr. Vincent Reinhart, 1995. "Flexible Estimation of Demand Schedules and Revenue Under Different Auction Formats," IMF Working Papers 1995/116, International Monetary Fund.
    6. Daniel Heller & Yvan Lengwiler, 2001. "Should the Treasury Price Discriminate?. A Procedure for Computing Hypothetical Bid Functions," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 157(3), pages 413-429, September.
    7. Timothy E. Josling & Stefan Tangermann & T. K. Warley, 1996. "The Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Agriculture in the GATT, chapter 8, pages 175-216, Palgrave Macmillan.
    8. V. V. Chari & Robert J. Weber, 1992. "How the U.S. Treasury should auction its debt," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 16(Fall), pages 3-12.
    9. Robert Wilson, 1979. "Auctions of Shares," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 93(4), pages 675-689.
    10. Awudu Abdulai, 2002. "Using threshold cointegration to estimate asymmetric price transmission in the Swiss pork market," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(6), pages 679-687.
    11. Stefan Tangermann, 1996. "Implementation Of The Uruguay Round Agreement On Agriculture: Issues And Prospects," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1‐4), pages 315-337, January.
    12. Tenorio, Rafael, 1993. "Revenue Equivalence and Bidding Behavior in a Multi-unit Auction Market: An Empirical Analysis," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 75(2), pages 302-314, May.
    13. repec:ccp:journl:v:1:y:2001:i:3:p:247-281 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Umlauf, Steven R., 1993. "An empirical study of the Mexican Treasury bill auction," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 313-340, June.
    15. Back, Kerry & Zender, Jaime F., 2001. "Auctions of divisible goods with endogenous supply," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 29-34, October.
    16. Motty Perry & Philip J. Reny, 2005. "An Efficient Multi-Unit Ascending Auction," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(2), pages 567-592.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Joerin, Robert, 2009. "Improving Market Access: The Role of Auctions in Converting Tariff-Rate Quotas into Single Tariffs," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 51448, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Joerin, Robert, 2014. "Improving Market Access: The Role Of Auctions In Converting Tariff-Rate Quotas Into Single Tariffs," Review of Agricultural and Applied Economics (RAAE), Faculty of Economics and Management, Slovak Agricultural University in Nitra, vol. 17(1), March.
    3. repec:ags:aoeisl:170467 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Daria Loginova & Marco Portmann & Martin Huber, 2021. "Assessing the Effects of Seasonal Tariff‐rate Quotas on Vegetable Prices in Switzerland," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(2), pages 607-627, June.
    5. Isabelle Schluep Campo & Robert Jörin, 2009. "Liberalizing the Swiss Meat Market with the EU: Welfare Effects and Impacts on Third Countries," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 145(I), pages 107-126, March.

    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. Monostori, Zoltán, 2013. "Diszkriminatív áras és egyenáras aukciók [Discriminatory and uniform-price auctions]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(10), pages 1048-1074.
    2. Damianov, Damian S. & Becker, Johannes Gerd, 2010. "Auctions with variable supply: Uniform price versus discriminatory," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 571-593, May.
    3. Raphaële Préget, 2004. "Adjudications des valeurs du Trésor," Revue Française d'Économie, Programme National Persée, vol. 18(4), pages 63-110.
    4. Saikat Nandi, 1997. "Treasury auctions: what do the recent models and results tell us?," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, vol. 82(Q 4), pages 4-15.
    5. Joerin, Robert, 2001. "The Impact Of Tariff-Rate Quotas And Imperfect Competition On Market Access," 2001: International Trade in Livestock Products Symposium, January 2001, Auckland, New Zealand 14556, International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium.
    6. Olivier Armantier & Erwann SbaÏ, 2006. "Estimation and comparison of treasury auction formats when bidders are asymmetric," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(6), pages 745-779, September.
    7. Cumpston, Anne & Khezr, Peyman, 2020. "Multi-Unit Auctions: A Survey of Theoretical Literature," MPRA Paper 101336, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Michał Krawczyk, 2009. "Demand functions in Polish Treasury auctions," Bank i Kredyt, Narodowy Bank Polski, vol. 40(4), pages 31-49.
    9. Rafael Romeu & Lawrence Ausubel, 2005. "Bidder Participation and Information in Currency Auctions," IMF Working Papers 2005/157, International Monetary Fund.
    10. McAdams, David, 2007. "Adjustable supply in uniform price auctions: Non-commitment as a strategic tool," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 48-53, April.
    11. Goldreich, David, 2003. "Underpricing in Discriminatory and Uniform-Price Treasury Auctions," CEPR Discussion Papers 4105, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Preget, Raphaele & Waelbroeck, Patrick, 2005. "Treasury bill auction procedures: Empirical perspectives from French market bid functions," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(7), pages 1054-1072, November.
    13. Peyman Khezr & Anne Cumpston, 2022. "A review of multiunit auctions with homogeneous goods," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(4), pages 1225-1247, September.
    14. Nyborg, Kjell G. & Sundaresan, Suresh, 1996. "Discriminatory versus uniform Treasury auctions: Evidence from when-issued transactions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 63-104, September.
    15. Orly Sade & Charles Schnitzlein & Jaime F. Zender, 2004. "Competition and Cooperation in Divisible Good Auctions: An Experimental Examination," Working Papers 2004.15, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    16. Matti Keloharju & Kjell G. Nyborg & Kristian Rydqvist, 2003. "Strategic Behavior and Underpricing in Uniform Price Auctions," Working Papers 2003.25, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    17. repec:awi:wpaper:0460 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Hunt Allcott, 2012. "The Smart Grid, Entry, and Imperfect Competition in Electricity Markets," NBER Working Papers 18071, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Keunkwan Ryu & Gyung-Rok Kim & Seonghwan Oh, 2004. "Discriminatory vs Uniform Price Auction: Auction Revenue," Econometric Society 2004 Far Eastern Meetings 539, Econometric Society.
    20. Xie, Danyang, 2010. "Subscription of shares," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 271-277, May.
    21. Pycia, Marek & Woodward, Kyle, 2021. "Auctions of Homogeneous Goods: A Case for Pay-as-Bid," CEPR Discussion Papers 15656, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Import Quotas; Auctions; Collusion; Treasury Bonds;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q17 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agriculture in International Trade
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • D44 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Auctions

    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:ses:arsjes:2004-iv-3. 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: Peter Steiner (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sgvssea.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.