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Tariff Pass-through in Wholesaling: Evidence from Firm-level Data in Japan

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  • Youngmin BAEK
  • HAYAKAWA Kazunobu
  • TSUBOTA Kenmei
  • URATA Shujiro
  • YAMANOUCHI Kenta

Abstract

Tariff pass-through is a vital issue for considering who and to what extent the trade liberalization benefits. This paper empirically examines the tariff pass-through in wholesaling by employing the wholesale firm-level data in Japan. We found that importing wholesalers significantly raised their margin ratio (i.e., (sales – procurements) / sales) against tariff reduction. On average, a 1% reduction of tariffs raised the margin ratio by around 0.25 percentage point. This rise is equivalent to the rise of sales prices to procurement prices by around 0.34%. For comparison purposes, we also analyzed tariff pass-through for the import and consumer prices and found that a 1% reduction of tariffs raised import prices (export prices for exporters) by 0.49% and decreased consumer prices by 0.08%. In sum, wholesalers in importing country enjoy the smaller part of tariff rent than producers in exporting country but the larger part than consumers in importing country.

Suggested Citation

  • Youngmin BAEK & HAYAKAWA Kazunobu & TSUBOTA Kenmei & URATA Shujiro & YAMANOUCHI Kenta, 2019. "Tariff Pass-through in Wholesaling: Evidence from Firm-level Data in Japan," Discussion papers 19064, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    • Handle: RePEc:eti:dpaper:19064
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    3. Hayakawa, Kazunobu & Ito, Tadashi & Urata, Shujiro, 2021. "Impacts of increased Chinese imports on Japan’s labor market," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).

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