Trade policy: Home market effect versus terms-of-trade externality

Author(s)
Harald Fadinger, Alessia Campolmi, Chiara Forlati
Abstract

We study trade policy in a two-sector Krugman (1980) trade model, allowing for wage, import and export subsidies/taxes. We study non-cooperative trade policies, first for each individual instrument and then for the situation where all instruments can be set simultaneously, and contrast those with the efficient allocation. We show that in this general context there are four motives for non-cooperative trade policies: the correction of monopolistic distortions; the terms-of-trade manipulation; the delocation motive for protection (home market effect); the fiscal-burden-shifting motive. The Nash equilibrium when all instruments are available is characterized by first-best-level wage subsidies, and inefficient import subsidies and export taxes, which aim at relocating firms to the other economy and improving terms of trade. Thus, the dominating incentives for non-cooperative trade policies are the fiscal-burden-shifting motives and terms-of-trade effects.

Organisation(s)
Department of Economics
External organisation(s)
Central European University Budapest, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
Journal
Journal of International Economics
Volume
93
Pages
92-107
No. of pages
16
ISSN
0022-1996
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinteco.2013.12.010
Publication date
05-2014
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
502003 Foreign trade
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Economics and Econometrics, Finance
Portal url
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/trade-policy-home-market-effect-versus-termsoftrade-externality(57b565e8-8608-46a7-acad-de8be8c14105).html