Economics Department

Working Papers in Economics

Art
<Previous Article Next Article>

TITLE:
Trade Reform with a Government Budget Constraint

AUTHOR(S):
James E. Anderson, Boston College

DOCUMENT TYPE: Article

ABSTRACT:
The theory of trade reform typically is based on a passive government budget constraint, in which changes in tariff revenue are costlessly offset by lump sum transfers. This paper offers a general framework for trade reform when the government budget constraint is active, such that tariff revenue cuts must be offset by public good decreases or other tax increases. The trade reform and public finance literatures are integrated to develop some useful and simple new expressions characterizing welfare improving trade reform. The expressions are operational with Computable General Equilibrium models. The theoretical analysis and an application to Korean data in 1963 cast doubt of the desirability of tariff cuts in convex competitive economies with active government budget constraints.

Publication Status: published in Trade Policy and the Pacific Rim, J. Piggott and A. Woodland, eds., Macmillan for the International Economic Association, 1999.