Imports, Pass-Through, and the Structure of Retail Markets

Horst Raff () and Nicolas Schmitt ()

No CESifo Working Paper No. 2817, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo Group Munich

Abstract: We construct a model of trade with heterogeneous retailers to examine the effects of trade liberalization on retail market structure, imports and social welfare. We are especially interested in studying the degree of pass-through of import into retail prices and the effects of retail market regulation. The paper shows that the degree of pass-through may be large when market structure effects are taken into account, and that restrictions on retailing may have significant effects on imports and the degree of pass-through. The paper helps explain the apparent discrepancy between the low observed degree of pass-through and the large benefit that consumers seem to derive from trade liberalization.

Keywords: international trade; retailing; pass-through; firm heterogeneity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F12 L11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cesifo.de/DocCIDL/cesifo1_wp2817.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Imports, Pass-Through, and the Structure of Retail Markets (2009)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_2817

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo Group Munich
Address: Poschingerstrasse 5, 81679 Munich
Series data maintained by Julio Saavedra ().