IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fip/fedlwp/2012-010.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Price equalization does not imply free trade

Author

Abstract

In this paper we show that price equalization alone is not sufficient to establish that there are no barriers to international trade. There are many barrier combinations that deliver price equalization, but each combination implies a different volume of trade. Therefore, in order to make statements about trade barriers it is necessary to know the trade flows. We demonstrate this first in a simple two-country model. We then extend the result to a multi-country model with two sectors. We show that for the case of capital goods trade, barriers have to be large in order to be consistent with the observed trade flows. Our model also implies that capital goods prices look similar across countries, an implication that is consistent with data. Zero barriers to trade in capital goods will deliver price equalization in capital goods, but cannot reproduce the observed trade flows in our model.

Suggested Citation

  • Piyusha Mutreja & B. Ravikumar & Raymond Riezman & Michael Sposi, 2012. "Price equalization does not imply free trade," Working Papers 2012-010, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedlwp:2012-010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://research.stlouisfed.org/wp/2012/2012-010.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Piyusha Mutreja & B. Ravikumar & Raymond Riezman & Michael Sposi, 2015. "Price Equalization Does Not Imply Free Trade," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 97(4), pages 323-339.
    2. Douglas Gollin, 2002. "Getting Income Shares Right," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(2), pages 458-474, April.
    3. Alan M. Taylor & Mark P. Taylor, 2004. "The Purchasing Power Parity Debate," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 18(4), pages 135-158, Fall.
    4. Chang-Tai Hsieh & Peter J. Klenow, 2007. "Relative Prices and Relative Prosperity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(3), pages 562-585, June.
    5. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2003. "Gravity with Gravitas: A Solution to the Border Puzzle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 170-192, March.
    6. Robert E. Hall & Charles I. Jones, 1999. "Why do Some Countries Produce So Much More Output Per Worker than Others?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(1), pages 83-116.
    7. Mutreja, Piyusha & Ravikumar, B. & Riezman, Raymond & Sposi, Michael, 2014. "Price equalization, trade flows, and barriers to trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 383-398.
    8. Armenter, Roc & Lahiri, Amartya, 2012. "Accounting for development through investment prices," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(6), pages 550-564.
    9. Alan M. Taylor & Mark P. Taylor, 2004. "The Purchasing Power Parity Debate," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 18(4), pages 135-158, Fall.
    10. Dornbusch, Rudiger & Fischer, Stanley & Samuelson, Paul A, 1977. "Comparative Advantage, Trade, and Payments in a Ricardian Model with a Continuum of Goods," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 67(5), pages 823-839, December.
    11. M. Affendy, Arip & Sim Yee, Lau & Satoru, Madono, 2010. "Commodity-industry classificationproxy: A correspondence table between SITC revision 2 and ISIC revision 3," MPRA Paper 27626, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    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. Piyusha Mutreja & B. Ravikumar & Raymond Riezman & Michael Sposi, 2015. "Price Equalization Does Not Imply Free Trade," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 97(4), pages 323-339.
    2. Mark A. Wynne, 2012. "Five Years of Research on Globalization and Monetary Policy: What Have We Learned?," Annual Report, Globalization and Monetary Policy Institute, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, pages 2-17.
    3. Mutreja, Piyusha & Ravikumar, B. & Riezman, Raymond & Sposi, Michael, 2014. "Price equalization, trade flows, and barriers to trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 383-398.
    4. Piyusha Mutreja & B. Ravikumar & Michael Sposi, 2014. "Capital goods trade and economic development," Globalization Institute Working Papers 183, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
    5. Michael Sposi, 2015. "Navigating the Structure of the Global Economy," Annual Report, Globalization and Monetary Policy Institute, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, pages 10-17.

    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. Piyusha Mutreja & Michael Sposi & B. Ravikumar, 2018. "Capital Goods Trade, Relative Prices and Economic Development," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 27, pages 101-122, January.
    2. Piyusha Mutreja & B. Ravikumar & Michael Sposi, 2014. "Capital goods trade and economic development," Globalization Institute Working Papers 183, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
    3. Mutreja, Piyusha & Ravikumar, B. & Riezman, Raymond & Sposi, Michael, 2014. "Price equalization, trade flows, and barriers to trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 383-398.
    4. Sposi, Michael, 2015. "Trade barriers and the relative price of tradables," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(2), pages 398-411.
    5. Michael E. Waugh, 2010. "International Trade and Income Differences," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(5), pages 2093-2124, December.
    6. Weicheng Lian & Natalija Novta & Evgenia Pugacheva & Yannick Timmer & Petia Topalova, 2020. "The Price of Capital Goods: A Driver of Investment Under Threat," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 68(3), pages 509-549, September.
    7. Michael Sposi, 2015. "Navigating the Structure of the Global Economy," Annual Report, Globalization and Monetary Policy Institute, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, pages 10-17.
    8. Weicheng Lian & Natalija Novta & Evgenia Pugacheva & Yannick Timmer & Petia Topalova, 0. "The Price of Capital Goods: A Driver of Investment Under Threat," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 0, pages 1-41.
    9. The University of Iowa & Michael Waugh, 2008. "Bilateral Trade, Relative Prices, and Trade Costs," 2008 Meeting Papers 781, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    10. Paul R. Bergin & Reuven Glick & Alan M. Taylor, 2017. "Productivity, Tradability, and the Long-Run Price Puzzle," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: International Macroeconomic Interdependence, chapter 8, pages 211-248, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    11. Caselli, Francesco, 2005. "Accounting for Cross-Country Income Differences," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 9, pages 679-741, Elsevier.
    12. Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas & Olivier Jeanne, 2006. "The Elusive Gains from International Financial Integration," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 73(3), pages 715-741.
    13. Hai Long Vo & Duc Hong Vo, 2023. "The purchasing power parity and exchange‐rate economics half a century on," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 446-479, April.
    14. Daniel Schäfer, 2024. "Development and Sector Labor Income Shares," Economics working papers 2024-05, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    15. Binder, Michael & Offermanns, Christian J., 2007. "International investment positions and exchange rate dynamics: A dynamic panel analysis," CFS Working Paper Series 2007/23, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    16. Barry P. Bosworth & Susan M. Collins, 2003. "The Empirics of Growth: An Update," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 34(2), pages 113-206.
    17. repec:wsr:wpaper:y:2012:i:087 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Pavlidis, Efthymios G. & Paya, Ivan & Peel, David A., 2011. "Real exchange rates and time-varying trade costs," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 1157-1179, October.
    19. Armenter, Roc & Lahiri, Amartya, 2012. "Accounting for development through investment prices," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(6), pages 550-564.
    20. Chen, Chaoran, 2020. "Technology adoption, capital deepening, and international productivity differences," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    21. Alexander Monge-Naranjo & Juan M. Sánchez & Raül Santaeulàlia-Llopis, 2019. "Natural Resources and Global Misallocation," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(2), pages 79-126, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Purchasing power parity; International trade;

    JEL classification:

    • F01 - International Economics - - General - - - Global Outlook
    • F02 - International Economics - - General - - - International Economic Order and Integration

    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:fip:fedlwp:2012-010. 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: Anna Oates (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/frbslus.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.