IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cii/cepidt/2012-16.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Assessing the price-raising effect of non-tariff measures in Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Olivier Cadot
  • Julien Gourdon

Abstract

In spite of widespread tariff reductions, intra-African borders remain thick. Regional trade is inhibited by inadequate transportation infrastructure, but also by various government-imposed measures. This paper combines price data from the World Bank’s International Comparison Project (ICP) with the new TRAINS database on non-tariff measures (NTMs) to estimate their effect on consumer prices for selected consumption products. Results based on panel regressions on 1260 country-product pairs suggest that, after controlling for tariffs, systematic cross-country cost-of-living differences, and product-specific unobservables, SPS measures contribute to raise the price of African foodstuffs by 14%. At the product level, rice and other cereals, some types of meat (e.g. poultry), and edible oils tend to fetch high AVEs. Combining our estimates with data on household expenditure patterns from Kenya’s household survey, we show that the effect is regressive, raising the cost of living by 9% for poor households.

Suggested Citation

  • Olivier Cadot & Julien Gourdon, 2012. "Assessing the price-raising effect of non-tariff measures in Africa," Working Papers 2012-16, CEPII research center.
    • Handle: RePEc:cii:cepidt:2012-16
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.cepii.fr/PDF_PUB/wp/2012/wp2012-16.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hiau LooiKee & Alessandro Nicita & Marcelo Olarreaga, 2009. "Estimating Trade Restrictiveness Indices," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(534), pages 172-199, January.
    2. Robert C. Feenstra, 1984. "Voluntary Export Restraint in U.S. Autos, 1980-81: Quality, Employment, and Welfare Effects," NBER Chapters, in: The Structure and Evolution of Recent US Trade Policy, pages 35-66, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Andriamananjara, Soamiely & Dean, Judith M. & Feinberg, Robert & Ferrantino, Michael J. & Ludema, Rodney & Tsigas, Marinos E., 2004. "The Effects of Non-Tariff Measures on Prices, Trade, and Welfare: CGE Implementation of Policy-Based Price Comparisons," Working Papers 15863, United States International Trade Commission, Office of Economics.
    4. Anderson, James E & Neary, J Peter, 1994. "Measuring the Restrictiveness of Trade Policy," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 8(2), pages 151-169, May.
    5. Disdier, Anne-Celia & Fontagne, Lionel & Mimouni, Mondher, 2008. "AJAE Appendix: The Impact of Regulations on Agricultural Trade: Evidence from the SPS and TBT Agreements," American Journal of Agricultural Economics APPENDICES, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 90(2), pages 1-7.
    6. Engel, Charles & Rogers, John H, 1996. "How Wide Is the Border?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(5), pages 1112-1125, December.
    7. Scott Bradford, 2003. "Paying the Price: Final Goods Protection in OECD Countries," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(1), pages 24-37, February.
    8. Hoekman, Bernard & Zarrouk, Jamel, 2009. "Changes in cross-border trade costs in the Pan-Arab free trade area, 2001-2008," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5031, The World Bank.
    9. Robert E. Baldwin, 1975. "Appendices to "Foreign Trade Regimes and Economic Development: Philippines"," NBER Chapters, in: Foreign Trade Regimes and Economic Development: The Philippines, pages 157-160, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Robert E. Baldwin, 1975. "Foreign Trade Regimes and Economic Development: The Philippines," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number bald75-1, June.
    11. Robert E. Baldwin, 1989. "Measuring Nontariff Trade Policies," NBER Working Papers 2978, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Beghin, John C. & Disdier, Anne-Celia & Marette, Stephan & van Tongeren, Frank, 2011. "Measuring Costs And Benefits Of Non-Tariff Measures In Agri-Food Trade," Staff General Research Papers Archive 32393, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    13. Karugia, Joseph Thuo & Wanjiku, Julliet & Gbegbelegbe, Sika & Nzuma, Jonathan M. & Massawe, Stella & Macharia, Eric & Freeman, H. Ade & Waithaka, Michael M. & Kaitibie, Simeon & Gulan, Ayele, 2009. "The impact of non-tariff barriers on maize and beef trade in East Africa," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 51672, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    14. Mahbub Morshed, A. K. M., 2003. "What can we learn from a large border effect in developing countries?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 353-369, October.
    15. Ihle, Rico & von Cramon-Taubadel, Stephan & Zorya, Sergiy, 2010. "Country and border effects in the transmission of maize prices in Eastern Africa: evidence from a semi-parametric regression model," 2010 AAAE Third Conference/AEASA 48th Conference, September 19-23, 2010, Cape Town, South Africa 96184, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    16. Michael J. Ferrantino, 2006. "Quantifying the Trade and Economic Effects of Non-Tariff Measures," OECD Trade Policy Papers 28, OECD Publishing.
    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. Olivier Cadot & Julien Gourdon, 2016. "Non-tariff measures, preferential trade agreements, and prices: new evidence," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 152(2), pages 227-249, May.
    2. Olivier Cadot & Julien Gourdon, 2016. "Non-tariff measures, preferential trade agreements, and prices: new evidence," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 152(2), pages 227-249, May.
    3. Maria Cipollina & Luca Salvatici, 2008. "Measuring Protection: Mission Impossible?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(3), pages 577-616, July.
    4. Gordhan K. Saini, 2009. "Non-tariff measures and Indian textiles and clothing exports," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2009-002, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    5. Eyal RONEN, 2017. "Quantifying the trade effects of NTMs: A review of the empirical literature," Journal of Economics and Political Economy, KSP Journals, vol. 4(3), pages 263-274, September.
    6. Ederington,Josh & Ruta,Michele, 2016. "Non-tariff measures and the world trading system," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7661, The World Bank.
    7. Dean Judith M & Signoret José E & Feinberg Robert M. & Ludema Rodney D. & Ferrantino Michael J, 2009. "Estimating the Price Effects of Non-Tariff Barriers," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-41, March.
    8. Murat Genç & David Law, 2014. "A Gravity Model of Barriers to Trade in New Zealand," Treasury Working Paper Series 14/05, New Zealand Treasury.
    9. Maria Cipollina & Federica Demaria, 2020. "The Trade Effect of the EU’s Preference Margins and Non-Tariff Barriers," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-20, September.
    10. Luisa Kinzius & Alexander Sandkamp & Erdal Yalcin, 2019. "Trade protection and the role of non-tariff barriers," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 155(4), pages 603-643, November.
    11. Anne-Célia Disdier & Lionel Fontagné & Mondher Mimouni, 2008. "The Impact of Regulations on Agricultural Trade: Evidence from the SPS and TBT Agreements," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 90(2), pages 336-350.
    12. Zhaohui Niu & Chang Liu & Saileshsingh Gunessee & Chris Milner, 2018. "Non-tariff and overall protection: evidence across countries and over time," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 154(4), pages 675-703, November.
    13. Zhaohui Niu & Chang Liu & Saileshsingh Gunessee & Chris Milner, 2017. "Non-Tariff and Overall Protection: Evidence from Across Countries and Over Time," Discussion Papers 2017-08, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    14. Marco Fugazza, 2013. "The Economics Behind Non-Tariff Measures: Theoretical Insights And Empirical Evidence," UNCTAD Blue Series Papers 57, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
    15. Gordhan K. Saini, 2009. "Non-Tariff Measures and Indian Textiles and Clothing Exports," Trade Working Papers 22407, East Asian Bureau of Economic Research.
    16. Ronen, Eyal & Dawar, Kamala, 2016. "How Necessary? A Comparison of Legal and Economic Assessments GATT Dispute Settlements under: Article XX(b), TBT 2.2 and SPS 5.6," MPRA Paper 83834, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Michael Bratt, 2017. "Estimating the bilateral impact of nontariff measures on trade," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(5), pages 1105-1129, November.
    18. Salamat Ali, 2016. "Export Response to Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and Technical Barriers to Trade: Firm-level Evidence from a Developing Country," Discussion Papers 2016-02, University of Nottingham, CREDIT.
    19. World Bank, 2015. "Kazakhstan Trade Report," World Bank Publications - Reports 22046, The World Bank Group.
    20. Hiau LooiKee & Alessandro Nicita & Marcelo Olarreaga, 2009. "Estimating Trade Restrictiveness Indices," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(534), pages 172-199, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Ad-valorem equivalent; Price-raising impact of non tariff measures; Africa;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • F11 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Neoclassical Models of Trade
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • O55 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Africa

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cii:cepidt:2012-16. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepiifr.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.