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Household inequality, social welfare, and trade

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  • Francois, Joseph
  • Rojas-Romagosa, Hugo

Abstract

Working with Sen social welfare functions (meaning explicit separability between mean income and income dispersion), we develop a generalized dual approach to tracking household inequality aspects of social welfare in general equilibrium. We highlight how household equity can be examined analytically alongside production efficiency in duality-based models, using our dual framework to explore potential trade-offs between efficiency and equity effects of trade policy. Our results complement the set of standard inequality results in trade theory focused on functional rather than household inequality. We also find that the relative distributional impact of tariffs on welfare is conditional on the initial level of inequality.

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  • Francois, Joseph & Rojas-Romagosa, Hugo, 2011. "Household inequality, social welfare, and trade," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 422-431, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:deveco:v:96:y:2011:i:2:p:422-431
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    2. Nicita, Alessandro & Olarreaga, Marcelo & Porto, Guido, 2014. "Pro-poor trade policy in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 252-265.
    3. Francois, Joseph & Nelson, Douglas & Rojas-Romagosa, Hugo, 2019. "Trade Wars and Trade Disputes: The Role of Equity and Political Support," Conference papers 333046, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sen welfare functions Trade and equity Equity and welfare in general equilibrium Equity in CGE;

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

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