IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/jet/dpaper/dpaper258.html

Smuggling and import duties in Myanmar

Author

Listed:
  • Kubo, Koji
  • Nu, Nu Lwin

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of import duties on smuggling in Myanmar. Following Fisman and Wei (2004), the reporting discrepancies between Myanmar’s imports records and corresponding exports recorded by trading partners are regarded as indicative of smuggling. The paper studies whether reporting discrepancies differ across trading partners as well as across time. Our main findings are first, that the hike in import duties in June 2004 helped to widen the reporting discrepancies, which suggests smuggling for tax evasion purposes and second, that reporting discrepancies differ considerably across trading partners: land borders appear to be particularly attractive venues for smugglers.

Suggested Citation

  • Kubo, Koji & Nu, Nu Lwin, 2010. "Smuggling and import duties in Myanmar," IDE Discussion Papers 258, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    • Handle: RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper258
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ir.ide.go.jp/record/37913/files/IDP000258_001.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2010
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Connely, Michael & Devereux, John & Cortes, Mariluz, 1995. "The transhipment problem: Smuggling and welfare in Paraguay," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 975-985, June.
    2. Javorcik, Beata S. & Narciso, Gaia, 2008. "Differentiated products and evasion of import tariffs," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 208-222, December.
    3. Jayant Menon, 1999. "Transitional economies in free trade areas: Lao PDR in the ASEAN free trade area," Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(2), pages 340-364.
    4. Raymond Fisman & Shang-Jin Wei, 2004. "Tax Rates and Tax Evasion: Evidence from "Missing Imports" in China," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(2), pages 471-500, April.
    5. Mishra, Prachi & Subramanian, Arvind & Topalova, Petia, 2008. "Tariffs, enforcement, and customs evasion: Evidence from India," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(10-11), pages 1907-1925, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shintaro Hamanaka, 2012. "Whose trade statistics are correct? Multiple mirror comparison techniques: a test case of Cambodia," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(1), pages 33-56, March.
    2. Reimeingam, Marchang, 2015. "Moreh namphalong border trade," Working Papers 346, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore.

    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. Kubo, Koji, 2012. "Trade policies and trade mis-reporting in Myanmar," IDE Discussion Papers 326, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    2. Zuzanna Studnicka, 2025. "Tariff evasion, the trade gap, and structural trade," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 161(3), pages 1215-1254, August.
    3. Peyton Michael Ferrier, 2021. "Detecting origin fraud with trade data: the case of U.S. honey imports," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 65(1), pages 222-245, January.
    4. Cristina Mitaritonna & Sami Bensassi & Joachim Jarreau, 2017. "Regional Integration and Informal Trade in Africa: Evidence from Benin's Borders," Working Papers 2017-21, CEPII research center.
    5. Javorcik, Beata & Demir, Banu, 2018. "Forensics, Elasticities and Benford's Law," CEPR Discussion Papers 12798, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    6. Javorcik, Beata S. & Narciso, Gaia, 2017. "WTO accession and tariff evasion," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 59-71.
    7. Bussy, Adrien, 2023. "Corporate tax evasion: Evidence from international trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    8. Kalkuhl, Matthias & Fernandez Milan, Blanca & Schwerhoff, Gregor & Jakob, Michael & Hahnen, Maren & Creutzig, Felix, 2017. "Fiscal Instruments for Sustainable Development: The Case of Land Taxes," MPRA Paper 78652, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Lorenzo Rotunno & Pierre‐Louis Vézina, 2015. "Quota‐Hopping In‐Bond Diversion," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 53(1), pages 34-48, January.
    10. Bilal M. Khan & Karrar Hussain & Zara Liaqat, 2024. "Trade misreporting: Evidence from Pakistani importers," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 390-414, February.
    11. Ferrantino, Michael J. & Liu, Xuepeng & Wang, Zhi, 2012. "Evasion behaviors of exporters and importers: Evidence from the U.S.–China trade data discrepancy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 141-157.
    12. Mirco Tonin, 2014. "Reporting import tariffs (and other taxes)," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(1), pages 153-173, February.
    13. Mohammad Farhad & Jakob B. Madsen & Michael Jetter & Andrew Williams, 2024. "The mystery of misreported trade: A novel method to identify distorted trade figures," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 748-778, February.
    14. Temesgen Worku & Juan P. Mendoza & Jacco L. Wielhouwer, 2016. "Tariff evasion in sub-Saharan Africa: the influence of corruption in importing and exporting countries," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 23(4), pages 741-761, August.
    15. repec:tac:wpaper:1 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Adrien Bussy & Annalisa Tassi, 2025. "Cross-border value-added tax fraud in the European Union," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 161(1), pages 1-23, December.
    17. Kowsar Yousefi & Mohammad Vesal, 2023. "The Double Dividend of a Joint Tariff and VAT Reform: Evidence from Iran," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 37(2), pages 331-349.
    18. Bob Rijkers & Leila Baghdadi & Gael Raballand, 2017. "Political Connections and Tariff Evasion Evidence from Tunisia," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 31(2), pages 459-482.
    19. Cheung, Yin-Wong & Steinkamp, Sven & Westermann, Frank, 2020. "Capital flight to Germany: Two alternative measures," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    20. Demir, Banu & Javorcik, Beata, 2020. "Trade policy changes, tax evasion and Benford's law," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    21. Jon Bakija & Ivan Badinski, 2014. "Evidence on the Responsiveness of Export-Related VAT Evasion to VAT Rates in the EU," Department of Economics Working Papers 2014-06, Department of Economics, Williams College.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law
    • O17 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Formal and Informal Sectors; Shadow Economy; Institutional Arrangements

    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:jet:dpaper:dpaper258. 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: Michitaka Imamitsu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/idegvjp.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.