This paper discusses the channels between openness and productivity and trade hampering factors. The stylized facts from the heterogeneous firms literature suggests that firms face market entry costs for each new product they export and to each new export market. Transport costs, border costs...

We find that prior to World Trade Organization membership, countries set import tariffs 9 percentage points higher on inelastically supplied imports relative to those supplied elastically. The magnitude of this effect is similar to the size of average tariffs in these countries, and market power...

This paper estimates the productivity gains from reducing tariffs on final goods and from reducing tariffs on intermediate inputs. Lower output tariffs can increase productivity by inducing tougher import competition, whereas cheaper imported inputs can raise productivity via learning, variety,...

This paper provides a theory of lobby formation within a framework in which trade policy is determined through political contributions. Under certain conditions, free trade turns out to be an equilibrium outcome either when the government has a high affinity for political contributions or when...

This paper examines the interplay of environmental policies with trade policies (tariffs) in a context of bilateral trade and imperfect competition.

This paper adapts an incentive-compatible regulatory mechanism to the problem of taxing a foreign monopolist with unknown costs, when price and quantity contracts cannot be enforced. It is shown that the optimal mechanism involves an import licence fee, and yields zero expected revenue to the...

The paper reviews the cost and benefits of globalization (i.e. greater integration of national and global economies) from the perspective of India. It argues that India’s hesitant and reluctant globalization had a significant cost in terms of forgone growth, delay in the eradication of...