IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/nc194o/233091.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Selling Import Quota Licenses: The U.S. Cheese Case

Author

Listed:
  • McCorriston, Steve
  • Sheldon, Ian M.

Abstract

Recent discussions on U.S. trade policies suggest that import quotas should be auctioned to ensure the U.S. Treasury acquires the quota rent. However, studies which have estimated the potential benefits have ignored important details of import quota regimes, assumed perfect competition and no retaliation from exporters. This paper aims to deal with these three criticisms with an application to the U.S. import quota regime for cheese. The results show that in oligopolistic settings, the government could maximize potential rents from import restrictions by auctioning off an optimal quota. However, preventing retaliation reduces Treasury gains. Further, license sales have distributional implications for U.S. cheese processing firms and consumers. Depending on the source of rent dissipation, selling cheese quota licenses may result in a net welfare loss.

Suggested Citation

  • McCorriston, Steve & Sheldon, Ian M., 1992. "Selling Import Quota Licenses: The U.S. Cheese Case," Occasional Papers 233091, Regional Research Project NC-194: Organization and Performance of World Food Systems.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:nc194o:233091
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.233091
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/233091/files/nc194-op-44.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.233091?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Krishna, Kala, 1990. "The Case of the Vanishing Revenues: Auction Quotas with Monopoly," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(4), pages 828-836, September.
    2. Steve McCorriston & Ian M. Sheldon, 1991. "Government Intervention in Imperfectly Competitive Agricultural Input Markets," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 73(3), pages 621-632.
    3. Dixit, Avinash, 1988. "Anti-dumping and countervailing duties under oligopoly," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 55-68, January.
    4. Kala Krishna, 1988. "The Case of the Vanishing Revenues: Auction Quotas With Oligopoly," NBER Working Papers 2723, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Nirvikar Singh & Xavier Vives, 1984. "Price and Quantity Competition in a Differentiated Duopoly," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 15(4), pages 546-554, Winter.
    6. Brander, James A. & Spencer, Barbara J., 1985. "Export subsidies and international market share rivalry," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1-2), pages 83-100, February.
    7. Laussel, Didier & Montet, Christian & Peguin-Feissolle, Anne, 1988. "Optimal trade policy under oligopoly : A calibrated model of the Europe-Japan rivalry in the EEC car market," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 1547-1565, September.
    8. Bulow, Jeremy I & Geanakoplos, John D & Klemperer, Paul D, 1985. "Multimarket Oligopoly: Strategic Substitutes and Complements," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 93(3), pages 488-511, June.
    9. Cheng, Leonard K, 1988. "Assisting Domestic Industries under International Oligopoly: The Relevance of the Nature of Competition to Optimal Policies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(4), pages 746-758, September.
    10. Hornig, Ellen & Boisvert, Richard N & Blandford, David, 1990. "Quota Rents and Subsidies: The Case of U.S. Cheese Import Quotas," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 17(4), pages 421-434.
    11. Robert C. Feenstra, 1989. "Auctioning U.S. Import Quotas, Foreign Response, and Alternative Policies," NBER Working Papers 2839, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. Kohler, Philippe & O. Moore, Michael, 2003. "Domestic Welfare Effects of Foreign Strategic Trade Policies," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 18, pages 573-586.
    2. Haufler, Andreas & Pflüger, Michael, 2003. "Market structure and the taxation of international trade," Discussion Papers in Economics 106, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    3. Delia Ionaºcu & Kresimir Zigic, 2005. "Strategic Tariff Protection, Market Conduct, and Government Commitment Levels in Developing Economies," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp249, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    4. Krishna, Kala & Roy, Suddhasatwa & Thursby, Marie, 1998. "Implementing Market Access," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 6(4), pages 529-544, November.
      • Krishna, K & Roy, S & Thursby, M, 1996. "Implementaing Market Access," Papers 96-003, Purdue University, Krannert School of Management - Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER).
      • Krishna, K & Thursby, M & Roy, S, 1996. "Implementing Market Access," Papers 96-011, Purdue University, Krannert School of Management - Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER).
      • Kala Krishna & Suddhasatwa Roy & Marie Thursby, 1996. "Implementing Market Access," NBER Working Papers 5593, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Collie, David, 1991. "Export subsidies and countervailing tariffs," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3-4), pages 309-324, November.
    6. Sheldon, Ian, 1989. "Intra-Industry Trade and Specialisation in Processed Agricultural Products: Theory and Issues," Occasional Papers 232829, Regional Research Project NC-194: Organization and Performance of World Food Systems.
    7. Ryu, Han Eol, 2023. "Public utility ownership and in-kind trade policy in vertically related markets," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    8. Delia Baghdasaryan & Krešimir Žigić, 2010. "Tariffs, market conduct and government commitment," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 18(1), pages 91-122, January.
    9. John Gilbert & Onur A. Koska & Reza Oladi, 2022. "International trade, differentiated goods, and strategic asymmetry," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 88(3), pages 1178-1198, January.
    10. Sheldon, Ian M., 1991. "Imperfect Competition and International Trade: The Use of Simulation Techniques," Occasional Papers 233066, Regional Research Project NC-194: Organization and Performance of World Food Systems.
    11. Neary, J. Peter, 1994. "Cost asymmetries in international subsidy games: Should governments help winners or losers?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3-4), pages 197-218, November.
    12. Kresimir Zigic, 2011. "Strategic Interactions in Markets with Innovative Activity: The Cases of Strategic Trade Policy and Market Leadership," CERGE-EI Books, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague, edition 1, number b06, May.
    13. Lim, Seonyoung & Choi, Kangsik, 2014. "Strategic Subsidy Policies with Endogenous Choice of Competition Mode," MPRA Paper 59462, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Arora, Ashish & Fosfuri, Andrea, 2003. "Licensing the market for technology," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 277-295, October.
    15. Yu-Ter Wang, 2009. "On the simultaneous elimination of export subsidies under oligopoly," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(5), pages 629-631.
    16. Qiu, Larry D., 1995. "Why can't countervailing duties deter export subsidization?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3-4), pages 249-272, November.
    17. Choi, Kangsik & Lim, Seonyoung, 2014. "Strategic Trade Policies with Endogenous Choice of Competition Mode under a Vertical Structure," MPRA Paper 59074, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Ian M. Sheldon, 2021. "Reflections on a Career as an Industrial Organization and International Economist," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(2), pages 468-499, June.
    19. McCorriston, Steve & Sheldon, Ian M., 1993. "Trade Reform with Vertically-Related Markets," Occasional Papers 233156, Regional Research Project NC-194: Organization and Performance of World Food Systems.
    20. Andreas HaufLer & Guttorm Schjelderup & Frank Stähler, 2005. "Barriers to Trade and Imperfect Competition: The Choice of Commodity Tax Base," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 12(3), pages 281-300, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    International Relations/Trade;

    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:ags:nc194o:233091. 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: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.