IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/erg/wpaper/1033.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Is Tunisian Trade Policy Pro-Poor?

Author

Listed:
  • Inma Martínez-Zarzoso
  • Leila Baghdadi
  • Hendrik Wiard Kruse

    (University of Goettingen)

Abstract

The main aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of Tunisian trade policy on household welfare. We use the recently released household survey data in combination with estimated tariff pass-through elasticities and wage elasticities obtained from Mincerian equations. Changes in tariffs affect both local prices and wages and those changes are transmitted into changes in household expenditure. Using the methodology proposed by Porto (2006), the main results show that the changes in household welfare are positive and have a greater effect for the lower quantiles of the expenditure distribution. This result is largely explained by the fact that the decrease in consumer goods prices benefits poor more than rich households, while labor income effects are close to zero.

Suggested Citation

  • Inma Martínez-Zarzoso & Leila Baghdadi & Hendrik Wiard Kruse, 2016. "Is Tunisian Trade Policy Pro-Poor?," Working Papers 1033, Economic Research Forum, revised Aug 2016.
    • Handle: RePEc:erg:wpaper:1033
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://erf.org.eg/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/1033.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://bit.ly/2aV1RFq
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg & Michael M. Knetter, 1997. "Goods Prices and Exchange Rates: What Have We Learned?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(3), pages 1243-1272, September.
    2. Fernando Borraz & Daniel Ferrés & Máximo Rossi, 2013. "Assessment of the distributive impact of national trade reforms in Brazil," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 11(2), pages 215-235, June.
    3. 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.
    4. Sofiane Ghali & Habib Zitouna & Zouhour Karray & Slim Driss, 2013. "Effects of NTMs on the Extensive and Intensive Margins to Trade: The Case of Tunisia and Egypt," Working Papers 820, Economic Research Forum, revised Dec 2013.
    5. Eleanor Doyle & Inmaculada Martinez-Zarzoso, 2011. "Productivity, Trade, and Institutional Quality: A Panel Analysis," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 77(3), pages 726-752, January.
    6. Deaton, Angus, 1989. "Rice Prices and Income Distribution in Thailand: A Non-parametric Analysis," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 99(395), pages 1-37, Supplemen.
    7. Porto, Guido G., 2006. "Using survey data to assess the distributional effects of trade policy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 140-160, September.
    8. Nicita, Alessandro, 2009. "The price effect of tariff liberalization: Measuring the impact on household welfare," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 19-27, May.
    9. Jacob Mincer, 1958. "Investment in Human Capital and Personal Income Distribution," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 66(4), pages 281-281.
    10. Minot, Nicholas & Chemingui, Mohamed Abdelbasset & Thomas, Marcelle & Dewina, Reno & Orden, David, 2010. "Trade liberalization and poverty in the Middle East and North Africa:," Research reports Nicholas Minot, et al., International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    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. Lawrence Edwards & Zaakirah Ismail & Godfrey Kamutando & Simbarashe Mambara & Matthew Stern & Fouche, 2022. "TheconsumerpriceeffectsofspecifictradepolicyrestrictionsinSouthAfrica," Working Papers 11036, South African Reserve Bank.
    2. Han, Jun & Liu, Runjuan & Ural Marchand, Beyza & Zhang, Junsen, 2016. "Market structure, imperfect tariff pass-through, and household welfare in Urban China," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 220-232.
    3. Ural Marchand, Beyza, 2012. "Tariff pass-through and the distributional effects of trade liberalization," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(2), pages 265-281.
    4. Beyza Ural Marchand, 2019. "Inequality and Trade Policy: The Pro‐Poor Bias of Contemporary Trade Restrictions," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 65(S1), pages 123-152, November.
    5. Daniel Lederman & Guido Porto, 2016. "The Price Is Not Always Right: On the Impacts of Commodity Prices on Households (and Countries)," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 31(1), pages 168-197.
    6. Lugo, María Ana & Garriga, Santiago & Puig, Jorge, 2022. "Effects of food prices on poverty: The case of Paraguay, a food exporter and a non-fully urbanized country," Revista Latinoamericana de Desarrollo Economico, Carrera de Economía de la Universidad Católica Boliviana (UCB) "San Pablo", issue 37, pages 7-43, Mayo.
    7. Artuc, Erhan & Porto, Guido & Rijkers, Bob, 2019. "Trading off the income gains and the inequality costs of trade policy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 1-45.
    8. Dai,Mi & Tanaka,Kiyoyasu, 2024. "Origin of Goods and Unequal Consumer Gains from Trade Liberalization," IDE Discussion Papers 939, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    9. 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.
    10. repec:wsr:wpaper:y:2012:i:083 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Antonio Martuscelli, 2017. "Analysing the Impact of Price Shocks in Rural Economies: Do Household Responses Matter?," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(9), pages 1518-1534, September.
    12. Pedro Moncarz & Sergio Barone & Germán Calfat & Ricardo Descalzi, 2017. "Poverty Impacts of Changes in the International Prices of Agricultural Commodities: Recent Evidence for Argentina (An Ex-Ante Analysis)," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(3), pages 375-395, March.
    13. Fernando Borraz & Daniel Ferrés & Máximo Rossi, 2013. "Assessment of the distributive impact of national trade reforms in Brazil," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 11(2), pages 215-235, June.
    14. Antonio Martuscelli & Michael Gasiorek, 2019. "Regional Integration And Poverty: A Review Of The Transmission Channels And The Evidence," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 431-457, April.
    15. Ujjayant Chakravorty & Marie‐Hélène Hubert & Beyza Ural Marchand, 2019. "Food for fuel: The effect of the US biofuel mandate on poverty in India," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 10(3), pages 1153-1193, July.
    16. Giordano, Paolo & Li, Kun, 2012. "An Updated Assessment of the Trade and Poverty Nexus in Latin America," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 4209, Inter-American Development Bank.
    17. L. Alan Winters & Antonio Martuscelli, 2014. "Trade Liberalization and Poverty: What Have We Learned in a Decade?," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 493-512, October.
    18. Hanan G. Jacoby, 2016. "Food Prices, Wages, And Welfare In Rural India," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 54(1), pages 159-176, January.
    19. Huw Lloyd-Ellis & Ardyn Nordstrom, 2021. "Trade, poverty and food security: A survey of recent research and its implications for East Africa," Working Paper 1460, Economics Department, Queen's University.
    20. Artuc Erhan & Depetris Chauvin Nicolas & Porto Guido & Rijkers Bob, 2023. "Protectionism and Gender Inequality in Developing Countries," Journal of Globalization and Development, De Gruyter, vol. 14(2), pages 177-222, December.
    21. Thomas W. Hertel & Jeffrey J. Reimer, 2006. "Predicting the Poverty Impacts of Trade Reform," QA - Rivista dell'Associazione Rossi-Doria, Associazione Rossi Doria, issue 2, May.

    More about this item

    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:erg:wpaper:1033. 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: Sherine Ghoneim (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/erfaceg.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.