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Tariff Protection, Imperfect Competition, and Time Consistency

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Abstract

In the standard perfectly competitive model, an import (export) subsidy never constitutes an optimal trade policy for a large country. Yet, in their influential papers (1984a, 1984b) Brander and Spencer showed that an import subsidy could be the best policy to use in the presence of a foreign monopoly. This chapter shows that when production decisions are irreversible, and there is no precommitted trade policy, the conventional outcome of an optimal tariff reappears even in the presence of a foreign monopoly.1

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References

  • Brander, J. A. and B. J. Spencer (1984a), Trade warfare: tariffs and cartels, Journal of International Economics 16, 227–242.

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  • Brander, J. A. and B. J. Spencer (1984b), Tariff protection and imperfect competition, in H. Kierzkowski (ed.), Monopolistic Competition and International Trade. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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© 1995 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Ishizawa, S. (1995). Tariff Protection, Imperfect Competition, and Time Consistency. In: Chang, W.W., Katayama, S. (eds) Imperfect competition in international trade. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2249-2_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2249-2_9

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-5947-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-2249-2

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