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Product-Level Trade Elasticities

Author

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  • Lionel Fontagné
  • Houssein Guimbard
  • Gianluca Orefice

Abstract

Trade elasticity is a crucial parameter in evaluating the welfare impacts of trade liberalization. We estimate trade elasticities at the product level (6-digit of the Harmonized System comprising more than 5,000 product categories) by exploiting the variation in bilateral applied tariffs for each product category for the universe of available country pairs. This is done by constructing a panel of bilateral applied tariffs and bilateral trade covering the period 2001 to 2016. We address potential endogeneity issues as well as heteroskedasticity and selection bias due to zero flows. The obtained trade elasticities are centered around -5. We finally highlight the differences in the gains from trade arising from considering heterogeneous rather than average trade elasticities. All product level elasticities are made publicly available for sake of scrutiny and use by other researchers.

Suggested Citation

  • Lionel Fontagné & Houssein Guimbard & Gianluca Orefice, 2019. "Product-Level Trade Elasticities," Working Papers 2019-17, CEPII research center.
    • Handle: RePEc:cii:cepidt:2019-17
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    4. Daniele Curzi & Martijn Huysmans, 2022. "The Impact of Protecting EU Geographical Indications in Trade Agreements," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 104(1), pages 364-384, January.
    5. Fontagné, Lionel & Santoni, Gianluca, 2021. "GVCs and the endogenous geography of RTAs," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    6. Zhao, Bei & Yarime, Masaru, 2022. "The impacts of carbon tariffs on international trade flows and carbon emissions: An analysis integrating trade elasticities with an application to US-China trade," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    7. Marco Grassia & Giuseppe Mangioni & Stefano Schiavo & Silvio Traverso, 2020. "(Unintended) Consequences of export restrictions on medical goods during the Covid-19 pandemic," Papers 2007.11941, arXiv.org.
    8. Döbeling, Tatjana & Pelikan, Janine, 2021. "The Market Dynamics of Tariff Rate Quotas in the Case of Ceta," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315282, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    9. Amat Adarov & Mahdi Ghodsi, 2021. "The impact of the Eurasian Economic Union–Iran preferential trade agreement on mutual trade at aggregate and sectoral levels," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 11(1), pages 125-157, March.
    10. Espitia,Alvaro & Rocha,Nadia & Ruta,Michele, 2020. "Covid-19 and Food Protectionism : The Impact of the Pandemic and Export Restrictions on World Food Markets," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9253, The World Bank.
    11. Jonas Böschemeier & Karsten Mau, 2023. "Foreign Supply Shocks and the Structure of Trade in a Small Open Economy," De Economist, Springer, vol. 171(4), pages 303-342, December.
    12. Aguiar, Angel & Chepeliev, Maksym & Golub, Alla & Hertel, Thomas & Soderbery, Anson & van der Mensbrugghe, Dominique, 2020. "The role of trade elasticities in shaping uncertainty in CGE policy outcomes," Conference papers 333206, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Trade Elasticity; International Trade; Tariffs; Welfare Gain;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F17 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Forecasting and Simulation

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