IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/683.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A New Approach to Evaluating Trade Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Anderson, James E
  • Neary, J Peter

Abstract

This paper introduces a new measure, the Trade Restrictiveness Index, which measures the restrictiveness of a system of trade protection. The index is a general equilibrium application of the distance function and answers the question: `What uniform set of trade restrictions is equivalent (in welfare terms) to the initial protective structure?' The index is applicable to both tariffs and quotas and allows international and intertemporal comparisons. The index is operational and we provide an empirical example to illustrate its applicability and to show its superiority to commonly used measures.

Suggested Citation

  • Anderson, James E & Neary, J Peter, 1992. "A New Approach to Evaluating Trade Policy," CEPR Discussion Papers 683, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:683
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=683
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Neary, J Peter, 1995. "Trade Liberalisation and Shadow Prices in the Presence of Tariffs and Quotas," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 36(3), pages 531-554, August.
    2. Anderson, James E & Neary, J Peter, 1992. "Trade Reform with Quotas, Partial Rent Retention, and Tariffs," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 60(1), pages 57-76, January.
    3. James E. Anderson, 1988. "The Relative Inefficiency of Quotas," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262511789, April.
    4. Fukushima, Takashi, 1981. "A dynamic quantity adjustment process in a small open economy, and welfare effects of tariff changes," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 513-529, November.
    5. Neary, J. P. & Roberts, K. W. S., 1980. "The theory of household behaviour under rationing," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 25-42, January.
    6. Tatsuo Hatta, 1977. "A Theory of Piecemeal Policy Recommendations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 44(1), pages 1-21.
    7. Trela, I. & Whalley, J., 1989. "Unravelling The Threads Of The Mfa," Papers 448, Stockholm - International Economic Studies.
    8. Lloyd, P. J., 1974. "A more general theory of price distortions in open economies," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 365-386, November.
    9. Diewert, W. E., 1985. "A dynamic approach to the measurement of waste in an open economy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3-4), pages 213-240, November.
    10. Falvey, Rodney E., 1988. "Tariffs, quotas and piecemeal policy reform," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1-2), pages 177-183, August.
    11. Lopez, Ramon & Panagariya, Arvind, 1992. "On the Theory of Piecemeal Tariff Reform: The Case of Pure Imported Intermediate Inputs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(3), pages 615-625, June.
    12. Foster, Edward & Sonnenschein, Hugo, 1970. "Price Distortion and Economic Welfare," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 38(2), pages 281-297, March.
    13. Peter Neary, 1988. "Tariffs, Quotas, and Voluntary Export Restraints with and without Internationally Mobile Capital," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 21(4), pages 714-735, November.
    14. Corden, W. Max & Falvey, Rodney E., 1985. "Quotas and the second best," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 67-70.
    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. Anderson, James E & Bannister, Geoffrey J & Neary, J Peter, 1995. "Domestic Distortions and International Trade," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 36(1), pages 139-157, February.
    2. J. Peter Neary, 2007. "Simultaneous Reform of Tariffs and Quotas," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(1), pages 37-44, February.
    3. Krishna, Pravin & Panagariya, Arvind, 2000. "A unification of second best results in international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 235-257, December.
    4. James E. Anderson & Arja Turunen-Red, 1999. "Trade Reform with a Government Budget Constraint," International Economic Association Series, in: John Piggott & Alan Woodland (ed.), International Trade Policy and the Pacific Rim, chapter 9, pages 217-244, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Jean‐Paul Chavas & Zohra Bouamra Mechemache, 2006. "The Economic Efficiency of Policy Reform and Partial Market Liberalization under Transaction Costs," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(3), pages 161-191, July.
    6. J. Neary, 2006. "International Trade and the Environment: Theoretical and Policy Linkages," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 33(1), pages 95-118, January.
    7. David Franck, 1999. "Tariff and Quota Reform with International Capital Mobility," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 66(1), pages 132-143, July.
    8. J. Peter Neary, 1998. "Pitfalls in the Theory of International Trade Policy: Concertina Reforms of Tariffs, and Subsidies to High‐Technology Industries," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 100(1), pages 187-206, March.
    9. Pascalis Raimondos-Møller & Alan Woodland, 2014. "Steepest ascent tariff reform," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 55(1), pages 69-99, January.
    10. Salvatici, Luca & Carter, Colin A. & Sumner, Daniel A., 1997. "The Trade Restrictiveness Index and its Potential Contribution to Agricultural Policy Analysis," 1997 Conference, August 10-16, 1997, Sacramento, California 197065, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    11. Salvatici, Luca & Carter, Colin A. & Sumner, Daniel A., 1997. "The Trade Restrictiveness Index: The Potential Contribution To Agricultural Policy Analysis," 1997 Annual meeting, July 27-30, Toronto, Canada 21028, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    12. Rod Falvey, 1994. "Revenue enhancing tariff reform," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 130(1), pages 175-190, March.
    13. James E. Anderson & Will Martin, 2011. "Costs of Taxation and Benefits of Public Goods with Multiple Taxes and Goods," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 13(2), pages 289-309, April.
    14. Anderson, James E, 1995. "Tariff-Index Theory," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 3(2), pages 156-173, June.
    15. Anderson, James E. & Neary, J. Peter, 2016. "Sufficient statistics for tariff reform when revenue matters," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 150-159.
    16. James E. Anderson, 2002. "Trade Reform Diagnostics with Many Households, Quotas, and Tariffs," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(2), pages 215-236, May.
    17. Kreickemeier, Udo & Raimondos-Møller, Pascalis, 2008. "Tari[ff]-tax reforms and market access," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 85-91, August.
    18. Will Martin & James E. Anderson, 2005. "Costs of Taxation and the Benefits of Public Goods: The Role of Income Effects," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 617, Boston College Department of Economics.
    19. David Franck & Nadeem Naqvi, 2000. "LDCs, International Capital Mobility and the Shadow Price of Foreign Exchange under Tariffs and Quantitative Restrictions," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 25(2), pages 43-54, December.
    20. James E. Anderson & J. Peter Neary, 2013. "Revenue Tariff Reform," NBER Working Papers 19752, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Protection; Quantitative Restrictions; Tariffs; Trade Restrictiveness Index; Voluntary Export;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations

    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:cpr:ceprdp:683. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    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.