Asymmetric industrial energy prices and international trade

Misato Sato () and Antoine Dechezleprêtre

Energy Economics, 2015, vol. 52, issue S1, S130-S141

Abstract: This paper measures the response of bilateral trade flows to differences in industrial energy prices across countries. Using a rich panel dataset with 42 countries, 62 manufacturing sectors over 16 years (1996–2011) and covering 60% of global merchandise trade, we estimate the short-run effects of sector-level energy price asymmetry on trade. We find that changes in relative energy prices have a statistically significant but very small impact on imports. On average, a 10% increase in the energy price difference between two country-sectors increases imports by 0.2%. The impact is larger for energy-intensive sectors. Even in these sectors, however, the magnitude of the effect is such that changes in energy price differences across time explain less than 0.01% of the variation in trade flows. Simulations based on our model predict that a €40–65/tCO2 price of carbon in the EU ETS would increase Europe's imports from the rest of the world by less than 0.05% and decrease exports by 0.2%.

Keywords: Energy prices; International trade; Carbon taxes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F14 F18 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (50)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Asymmetric Industrial Energy Prices and International Trade (2015)
Working Paper: Asymmetric industrial energy prices and international trade (2015)
Working Paper: Asymmetric industrial energy prices and international trade (2015)
Working Paper: Asymmetric industrial energy prices and international trade (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:52:y:2015:i:s1:p:s130-s141

DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2015.08.020

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