IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ijb/journl/v6y2007i2p147-160.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Output Subsidies and Quotas under Uncertainty and Firm Heterogeneity

Author

Listed:
  • Bernardo Moreno

    (Departamento de Teoria e Historia Economica, Universidad de Malaga, Spain)

  • Jose L. Torres

    (Departamento de Teoria e Historia Economica, Universidad de Malaga, Spain)

Abstract

This paper studies the relative efficiency of two kinds of regulations, quantity restrictions (quotas) and output subsidies, in an imperfectly competitive market in the presence of two sources of uncertainty, costs and prices. We find that when these two sources of uncertainty are independently distributed, the output subsidy instrument has a comparative advantage over the quantity instrument. However, when we take into account the possibility of correlation between the random components and across firms' marginal costs, we find that a positive (negative) correlation tends to favor the quantity (subsidy) instrument. Finally, we show that when the correlation is positive, it is possible to find situations in which the quantity instrument has comparative advantages over the subsidy instrument.

Suggested Citation

  • Bernardo Moreno & Jose L. Torres, 2007. "Output Subsidies and Quotas under Uncertainty and Firm Heterogeneity," International Journal of Business and Economics, School of Management Development, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, vol. 6(2), pages 147-160, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:ijb:journl:v:6:y:2007:i:2:p:147-160
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ijbe.fcu.edu.tw/assets/ijbe/past_issue/No.06-2/pdf/vol_6-2-5.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ijbe.fcu.edu.tw/assets/ijbe/past_issue/No.06-2/abstract/05.html
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin L. Weitzman, 1974. "Prices vs. Quantities," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 41(4), pages 477-491.
    2. repec:bla:jpbect:v:2:y:2000:i:2:p:273-88 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Hoel, Michael & Karp, Larry, 2001. "Taxes and quotas for a stock pollutant with multiplicative uncertainty," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 91-114, October.
    4. Hwang, Hae-Shin & Schulman, Craig T., 1993. "Strategic non-intervention and the choice of trade policy for international oligopoly," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1-2), pages 73-93, February.
    5. Arvan, Lanny, 1991. "Flexibility versus commitment in strategic trade policy under uncertainty : A model of endogenous policy leadership," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3-4), pages 341-355, November.
    6. Stavins, Robert N., 1996. "Correlated Uncertainty and Policy Instrument Choice," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 218-232, March.
    7. Junjie Wu, 2000. "Input Substitution and Pollution Control under Uncertainty and Firm Heterogeneity," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 2(2), pages 273-288, April.
    8. Choi, Eun Kwan & Johnson, Stanley R, 1987. "Consumer's Surplus and Price Uncertainty," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 28(2), pages 407-411, June.
    9. James M. Malcomson, 1978. "Prices vs. Quantities: A Critical Note on the Use of Approximations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 45(1), pages 203-207.
    10. Brander, James A. & Spencer, Barbara J., 1985. "Export subsidies and international market share rivalry," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(1-2), pages 83-100, February.
    11. Russell Cooper & Raymond Riezman, 2013. "Uncertainty and the Choice of Trade Policy in Oligopolistic Industries," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Raymond Riezman (ed.), International Trade Agreements and Political Economy, chapter 16, pages 287-298, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    12. Blair, Benjamin F. & Lewis, Tracy R. & Sappington, David E. M., 1995. "Simple regulatory policies in the presence of demand and cost uncertainty," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 57-73, April.
    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. Chen, Hung-Yi & Chang, Yang-Ming & Chiou, Jiunn-Rong, 2011. "A welfare analysis of tariffs and equivalent quotas under demand uncertainty: Implications for tariffication," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 549-561, October.
    2. Mustafa Caglayan & Murat Usman, 2004. "Incompletely informed policymakers and trade policy in oligopolistic industries," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 72(3), pages 283-297, June.
    3. D’Amato, Alessio & Dijkstra, Bouwe R., 2015. "Technology choice and environmental regulation under asymmetric information," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 224-247.
    4. Fischer, Carolyn & Laxminarayan, Ramanan, 2010. "Managing partially protected resources under uncertainty," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 129-141, March.
    5. Cameron Hepburn, 2006. "Regulation by Prices, Quantities, or Both: A Review of Instrument Choice," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 22(2), pages 226-247, Summer.
    6. Dewit, Gerda & Leahy, Dermot, 2004. "Rivalry in uncertain export markets: commitment versus flexibility," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 195-209, October.
    7. Halvor Briseid Storrøsten, 2012. "Prices vs. quantities: Technology choice, uncertainty and welfare," Discussion Papers 677, Statistics Norway, Research Department.
    8. Žigić, Krešimir, 2011. "Does a ‘non-committed’ government always generate lower social welfare than its ‘committed’ counterpart? Strategic trade policy when consumer surplus matters," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 533-556.
    9. Karp, Larry, 2004. "Dynamic Taxes and Quotas with Learning," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt8pg8s922, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.
    10. Martin Zapf & Hermann Pengg & Christian Weindl, 2019. "How to Comply with the Paris Agreement Temperature Goal: Global Carbon Pricing According to Carbon Budgets," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-20, August.
    11. Newell, Richard G. & Pizer, William A., 2003. "Regulating stock externalities under uncertainty," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 45(2, Supple), pages 416-432, March.
    12. Lecuyer, Oskar & Quirion, Philippe, 2013. "Can uncertainty justify overlapping policy instruments to mitigate emissions?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 177-191.
    13. Jussi Lintunen & Lauri Vilmi, 2021. "Optimal Emission Prices Over the Business Cycles," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 80(1), pages 135-167, September.
    14. Christian Elleby & Frank Jensen, 2018. "How Many Instruments Do We Really Need? A First-Best Optimal Solution to Multiple Objectives with Fisheries Regulation," IFRO Working Paper 2018/05, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.
    15. Quirion, Philippe, 2005. "Does uncertainty justify intensity emission caps?," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 343-353, November.
    16. Botor, Benjamin & Böcker, Benjamin & Kallabis, Thomas & Weber, Christoph, 2021. "Information shocks and profitability risks for power plant investments – impacts of policy instruments," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    17. Pezzey, John C.V. & Jotzo, Frank, 2010. "Tax-Versus-Trading and Free Emission Shares as Issues for Climate Policy Design," Research Reports 95049, Australian National University, Environmental Economics Research Hub.
    18. Shreekar Pradhan & J. Scott Holladay & Mohammed Mohsin & Shreekar Pradhan, 2015. "Environmental Policy Instruments and Uncertainties Under Free Trade and Capital Mobility," EcoMod2015 8102, EcoMod.
    19. Jihad C Elnaboulsi & W Daher & Y Saglam, 2015. "On the Social Value of Disclosed Information and Environmental Regulation," Working Papers hal-01377918, HAL.
    20. Pezzey, John C.V. & Jotzo, Frank, 2012. "Tax-versus-trading and efficient revenue recycling as issues for greenhouse gas abatement," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 230-236.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    cost uncertainty; demand uncertainty; firm heterogeneity; output subsidy; quota;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D8 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty
    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation

    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:ijb:journl:v:6:y:2007:i:2:p:147-160. 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: Szu-Hsien Ho (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cbfcutw.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.