Efficiency and Equity Gains from Trade Policy Reform: Accounting for Marginal and Average Tariff Rates in a Gendered CGE Analysis for Mozambique

In this paper, we identify potential efficiency and equity gains from trade policy reforms aimed at unifying de jure and de facto trade policy in Mozambique. Particular attention is paid to studying whether differential gender specific impacts exist. Accordingly, the CGE model applied involves the simultaneous capturing of average and marginal tariff rates, and simulations include both a standard (non-gender) set of experiments as well as a set where returns to male and female labor are distinguished. Policy reforms benefit nearly everyone with the main exception being those who used to benefit from existing rents. On the gender side, it turns out that the impact of reforms is basically neutral across factors, suggesting that at the level of aggregation used here it is difficult to uncover any major differential gender impacts. Nevertheless, our results do indicate that growth in factor incomes following the implementation of reforms is favorable to women.