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The Pro-competitive Effects of Trade Agreements

Author

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  • Crowley, Meredith A.
  • Han, Lu
  • ,

Abstract

How does trade policy affect competition? Using the universe of product exports by firms from eleven low and middle-income countries, we document that tariff reductions under trade agreements have strong pro-competitive effects -- they encourage entry and reduce the (tariff exclusive) price-cost markups of exporters. This finding, that markups fall with tariff cuts, contradicts a core prediction of standard oligopolistic competition models of trade. We extend a workhorse international pricing model of oligopolistic competition to include multiple countries and a rich preference structure. Our preference structure allows for fierce competition among firms from the same country and less intense competition among firms from different countries. We show a firm’s optimal markup after a tariff cut can rise or fall depending on the parameters of the preference structure and tariff-induced reallocation of market share among firms and across countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Crowley, Meredith A. & Han, Lu & ,, 2022. "The Pro-competitive Effects of Trade Agreements," CEPR Discussion Papers 17463, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:17463
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    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Lionel Fontagn'e & Francesca Micocci & Armando Rungi, 2024. "The heterogeneous impact of the EU-Canada agreement with causal machine learning," Papers 2407.07652, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2025.
    3. Matteo Neri-Lainé & Gianluca Orefice & Michele Ruta, 2023. "Deep Trade Agreements and Heterogeneous Firms Exports," CESifo Working Paper Series 10436, CESifo.
    4. Lyu, Wenyi & Yang, Jian & Yu, Leng, 2025. "Place-based policies, pro-competitive effects, and allocative efficiency: Evidence from China’s economic zones," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    5. French, Scott & Zylkin, Tom, 2024. "The effects of free trade agreements on product-level trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration

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