Choked by Red Tape? The Political Economy of Wasteful Trade Barriers

J. Peter Neary, Giovanni Maggi and Monika Mrázová

No 847, Economics Series Working Papers from University of Oxford, Department of Economics

Abstract: Abstract Red-tape barriers (RTBs) are an important source of trade costs, but have received little scholarly attention. Here we take a first step toward a theory of RTBs, and show that their implications are very different from those of more traditional trade barriers. Our model highlights that RTBs have important impacts on the extensive margin of trade, and yields rich predictions on how changes in the political-economic environment and product characteristics affect RTBs. Taking into account the endogenous response of RTBs is crucial to understanding the impact of reductions in tariffs and natural trade costs on the extensive and intensive margins of trade, as well as on welfare. Moreover, the availability of RTBs affects in important ways the tariff commitments that are specified in a trade agreement.

Keywords: International trade policy; Non-Tari Measures; Political economy; Red tape barriers; Trade agreements (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D7 F13 F55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-03-21
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:3fb9c731-7bf7-4f6f-99b3-38a62e0b3de2 (text/html)

Related works:
Journal Article: CHOKED BY RED TAPE? THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF WASTEFUL TRADE BARRIERS (2022)
Working Paper: Choked by Red Tape? The Political Economy of Wasteful Trade Barriers (2018)
Working Paper: Choked By Red Tape? The Political Economy of Wasteful Trade Barriers (2018)
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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oxf:wpaper:847

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Economics Series Working Papers from University of Oxford, Department of Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Anne Pouliquen ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).