IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_12902.html

Theory-Consistent Tariff Aggregation

Author

Listed:
  • James E. Anderson
  • Mario Larch
  • Serge Shikher
  • Yoto V. Yotov

Abstract

We propose and implement a theory-consistent procedure to aggregate tariffs. Theory implies that (i) the import weights used for aggregation should be net of the impact of tariffs, rather than based on observed imports, and (ii) aggregation must account for trade elasticities, both at the disaggregated and aggregate levels. Our aggregator nests as special cases and corrects the deficiencies of the two existing alternatives – the simple-average and import-weighted tariffs. Our procedure can be applied at any level of aggregation. We deploy it to aggregate 6-digit HS tariffs to the industry-level of the International Trade and Production databases of the USITC. Several applications use the new Theory-Consistent Tariff Database (TCTD) to highlight the advantages of the theory-consistent tariffs.

Suggested Citation

  • James E. Anderson & Mario Larch & Serge Shikher & Yoto V. Yotov, 2026. "Theory-Consistent Tariff Aggregation," CESifo Working Paper Series 12902, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_12902
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ifo.de/DocDL/cesifo1_wp12902.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Egger, Peter & Larch, Mario, 2008. "Interdependent preferential trade agreement memberships: An empirical analysis," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 384-399, December.
    2. James E. Anderson & J. Peter Neary, 2005. "Measuring the Restrictiveness of International Trade Policy," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262012200, December.
    3. Anderson, James E, 1979. "A Theoretical Foundation for the Gravity Equation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 69(1), pages 106-116, March.
    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. Mario Larch & Yoto V. Yotov, 2016. "General Equilibrium Trade Policy Analysis with Structural Gravity," CESifo Working Paper Series 6020, CESifo.
    2. James E. Anderson, 2011. "The Gravity Model," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 3(1), pages 133-160, September.
    3. Mathias Bühler, 2023. "Trade and Regional Economic Development," CESifo Working Paper Series 10270, CESifo.
    4. Katharina Längle, 2020. "Upgrading of Exports: Does the Integration into Trade Agreements Pave the Way to Product Upgrading?," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 20006, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    5. Salvador Gil-Pareja & Rafael Llorca & Josè A. Martinez-Serrano, 2011. "Is There A Continental Bias In Trade?," ERSA conference papers ersa10p792, European Regional Science Association.
    6. Costinot, Arnaud & Rodríguez-Clare, Andrés, 2014. "Trade Theory with Numbers: Quantifying the Consequences of Globalization," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 197-261, Elsevier.
    7. Harald Oberhofer & Zhenyi Wang, 2025. "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About EU Membership Trade Effects But Were Afraid to Ask," CESifo Working Paper Series 11823, CESifo.
    8. Cooray, Arusha & Jha, Chandan Kumar & Panda, Bibhudutta, 2023. "Corruption and assortative matching of partners in international trade," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    9. Rebecca Freeman & Mario Larch & Angelos Theodorakopoulos & Yoto Yotov, 2021. "Unlocking New Methods to Estimate Country-specific Trade Costs and Trade Elasticitie," School of Economics Working Paper Series 2021-17, LeBow College of Business, Drexel University.
    10. Felbermayr, Gabriel & Yotov, Yoto V., 2021. "From theory to policy with gravitas: A solution to the mystery of the excess trade balances," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    11. Dela‐Dem Fiankor & Fabio G. Santeramo, 2023. "Revisiting the impact of per‐unit duties on agricultural export prices," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 45(3), pages 1472-1492, September.
    12. Isaac Mensah, 2019. "The euro's effect on trade: an analysis of "old" and "new" EMU members," Review of Economics and Institutions, Università di Perugia, vol. 10(1).
    13. Jung, Benjamin, 2022. "The Trade Effects of the EU-South Korea Free Trade Agreement: Heterogeneity across Time, Country Pairs, and Directions of Trade within Country Pairs," VfS Annual Conference 2022 (Basel): Big Data in Economics 264125, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    14. Tomoya MORI & Jens WRONA, 2021. "Centrality Bias in Inter-city Trade," Discussion papers 21035, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    15. Fabien Candau & Geoffroy Guepie & Reine Kouakou, 2018. "In Gravity no Veritas: Dubious Trade Elasticiy and Weak Effects of Regional Trade Agreements in Africa," Working Papers hal-02625930, HAL.
    16. Mortha, Aline & Arimura, Toshi H. & Takeda, Shiro & Steubing, Bernhard R.P. & Chesnokova, Tatyana, 2025. "Industrial relocation or shorter shipping routes? Examining the impact of the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism on global emissions using structural gravity," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 1708-1741.
    17. Alessandro Olper & Valentina Raimondi, 2008. "Market Access Asymmetry in Food Trade," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 144(3), pages 509-537, October.
    18. Anderson, James E. & Yotov, Yoto V., 2016. "Terms of trade and global efficiency effects of free trade agreements, 1990–2002," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 279-298.
    19. Mario Larch & Serge Shikher & Constantinos Syropoulos & Yoto V. Yotov, 2022. "Quantifying the impact of economic sanctions on international trade in the energy and mining sectors," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(3), pages 1038-1063, July.
    20. Katharina Längle, 2020. "Upgrading of Exports: Does the Integration into Trade Agreements Pave the Way to Product Upgrading?," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-02899973, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • F11 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Neoclassical Models of Trade
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:ces:ceswps:_12902. 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.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.