IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/intecj/v19y2005i1p95-114.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Cost asymmetry, oligopolistic competition and optimal trade and industrial policies

Author

Listed:
  • Winston Chang
  • Hajime Sugeta

Abstract

Optimal trade and industrial policies are examined in an export-rivalry and a home-market model with general cost heterogeneity among firms. The roles of the demand and cost structures in policy determination are systematically analysed. It is shown that the equal-markup property holds in both models under the firm-specific industrial policy. A more efficient firm has a higher subsidy or a lower tax rate than an inefficient one. In the home market model under free trade, the firm-specific industrial policy always calls for subsidies to all home firms. Under the firm-specific trade policy, it is shown that the difference between any two tariff rates exactly equals 100% of the difference between the foreign firms' marginal costs, the home industry is always granted some positive level of protection, and a production-tax-cum-import-subsidy policy is never optimal.

Suggested Citation

  • Winston Chang & Hajime Sugeta, 2005. "Cost asymmetry, oligopolistic competition and optimal trade and industrial policies," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(1), pages 95-114.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:intecj:v:19:y:2005:i:1:p:95-114
    DOI: 10.1080/1351161042000320416
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1351161042000320416
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/1351161042000320416?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brander, James A. & Spencer, Barbara J., 1984. "Trade warfare: Tariffs and cartels," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3-4), pages 227-242, May.
    2. Collie, David, 1991. "Export subsidies and countervailing tariffs," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3-4), pages 309-324, November.
    3. Jonathan Eaton & Gene M. Grossman, 1986. "Optimal Trade and Industrial Policy Under Oligopoly," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 101(2), pages 383-406.
    4. Ngo, Van Long & Soubeyran, Antoine, 1997. "Cost heterogeneity, industry concentration and strategic trade policies," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1-2), pages 207-220, August.
    5. Sajal Lahiri & Yoshiyasu Ono, 1997. "Asymmetric oligopoly, international trade, and welfare: a synthesis," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 65(3), pages 291-310, October.
    6. Collie, David & de Meza, David, 2003. "Comparative advantage and the pursuit of strategic trade policy," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 279-283, November.
    7. Ngo Van Long & Antoine Soubeyran, 1999. "Industry concentration and optimal discriminatory commercial policies," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(3), pages 241-256.
    8. Krishna, Kala & Thursby, Marie, 1991. "Optimal policies with strategic distortions," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(3-4), pages 291-308, November.
    9. Mai, Chao-cheng & Hwang, Hong, 1988. "Optimal export subsidies and marginal cost differentials," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 279-282.
    10. Van Long, N. & Soubeyran, A., 1996. "Industry Structure and Optimal Discriminatory Commercial Policies," G.R.E.Q.A.M. 96a38, Universite Aix-Marseille III.
    11. Collie, David, 1993. "Strategic trade policy under asymmetric oligopoly," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 275-280, May.
    12. Bandyopadhyay, Subhayu, 1997. "Demand elasticities, asymmetry and strategic trade policy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(1-2), pages 167-177, February.
    13. Collie, David & De Meza, David, 1986. "Inadequacies of the strategic rationale of export subsidies," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 369-373.
    14. Unknown, 1986. "Letters," Choices: The Magazine of Food, Farm, and Resource Issues, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 1(4), pages 1-9.
    15. 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.
    16. Leahy, Dermot & Montagna, Catia, 2001. "Strategic Trade Policy with Heterogeneous Costs," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 177-182, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Naoto Jinji & Tsuyoshi Toshimitsu, 2014. "Strategic Investment Subsidies under Asymmetric Oligopoly," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(3), pages 490-501, August.

    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. Arghya Ghosh & Souresh Saha, 2008. "Trade Policy in the Presence of Technology Licensing," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(1), pages 45-68, February.
    2. Dermot Leahy & Catia Montagna, 1998. "Targeted Strategic Trade Policy with Domestic Cost Heterogeneity," Dundee Discussion Papers in Economics 100, Economic Studies, University of Dundee.
    3. Rabah Amir & Jim Y. Jin & Michael Troege, 2022. "On the limits of free trade in a Cournot world: When are restrictions on trade beneficial?," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(4), pages 2036-2057, November.
    4. Choi, Kangsik & Lee, Ki-Dong & Lim, Seonyoung, 2016. "Strategic Trade Policies In International Rivalry When Competition Mode Is Endogenous," Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 57(2), pages 223-241, December.
    5. Brander, James A., 1995. "Strategic trade policy," Handbook of International Economics, in: G. M. Grossman & K. Rogoff (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 27, pages 1395-1455, Elsevier.
    6. Yoon, Jeong & Choi, Kangsik, 2018. "Why do export subsidies still exist? R&D and output subsidies," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 30-38.
    7. Kohler, Philippe & O. Moore, Michael, 2003. "Domestic Welfare Effects of Foreign Strategic Trade Policies," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 18, pages 573-586.
    8. Lim, Seonyoung & Choi, Kangsik, 2014. "Strategic Subsidy Policies with Endogenous Choice of Competition Mode," MPRA Paper 59462, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Baomin Dong & Lasheng Yuan, 2010. "The Loss from Trade under International Cournot Oligopoly with Cost Asymmetry," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(5), pages 818-831, November.
    10. Yu-Ter Wang & Bih-Jane Liu & Pan-Long Tsai, 2004. "Trade Policy and Economic Integration in a Cournot Duopoly Model," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 43(3), pages 239-251.
    11. Jinji, Naoto & Toshimitsu, Tsuyoshi, 2013. "Strategic R&D policy in a quality-differentiated industry with three exporting countries," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 132-142.
    12. C. Withagen & R. Florax & A. Mulatu, 2007. "Optimal Environmental Policy Differentials in Open Economies under Emissions Constraints," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 91(2), pages 129-149, June.
    13. Collie, David R., 2019. "Trade Wars under Oligopoly: Who Wins and is Free Trade Sustainable?," Cardiff Economics Working Papers E2019/4, Cardiff University, Cardiff Business School, Economics Section.
    14. K.L. Glen Ueng & Tsaur‐Chin Wu & Chih‐Ta Yen & Chih‐Ting Chou, 2022. "Market concentration and superiority among strategic export subsidy policies with taxation distortion and cost heterogeneity," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 24(2), pages 276-292, April.
    15. Ngo, Van Long & Soubeyran, Antoine, 1997. "Cost heterogeneity, industry concentration and strategic trade policies," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1-2), pages 207-220, August.
    16. Collie, David & de Meza, David, 2003. "Comparative advantage and the pursuit of strategic trade policy," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 279-283, November.
    17. Xu, Lili & Lee, Sang-Ho & Wang, Leonard F.S., 2016. "Free trade agreements and privatization policy with an excess burden of taxation," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 37, pages 55-64.
    18. Naoto Jinji & Tsuyoshi Toshimitsu, 2014. "Strategic Investment Subsidies under Asymmetric Oligopoly," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(3), pages 490-501, August.
    19. Xu, Lili & Lee, Sang-Ho & Wang, Leonard, 2017. "Strategic Trade and Privatization Policies in Bilateral Mixed Markets," MPRA Paper 80340, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Ishikawa, Jota & Spencer, Barbara J., 1999. "Rent-shifting export subsidies with an imported intermediate product," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 199-232, August.

    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:taf:intecj:v:19:y:2005:i:1:p:95-114. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RIEJ20 .

    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.