Steepest ascent tariff reform

The policy reform literature is primarily concerned with the construction of reforms that yield welfare gains. By contrast, this paper’s contribution is to develop a theoretical concept for which the focus is upon the sizes of welfare gains accruing from policy reforms rather than upon their signs. In undertaking this task, and by focusing on tariff reforms, we introduce the concept of a steepest ascent policy reform, which is a locally optimal reform in the sense that it achieves the highest marginal gain in utility of any feasible local reform. We argue that this reform presents itself as a natural benchmark for the evaluation of the welfare effectiveness of other popular tariff reforms such as the proportional tariff reduction and the concertina rules, since it provides the maximal welfare gain of all possible local reforms. We derive properties of the steepest ascent tariff reform, construct an index to measure the relative welfare effectiveness of any given tariff reform, determine conditions under which proportional and concertina reforms are locally optimal and provide illustrative examples.

A political economy analysis of import tariff policy in Brazil: 1980-1988

Includes bibliography

The Potential of Tariff Policy for Climate Change Mitigation: Legal and Economic Analysis

This paper addresses a potential role that tariffs and tariff policy can play in encouraging countries to take part in a multilateral effort to mitigate climate change. It begins by assessing whether increasing tariffs on products from energy intensive or polluting industries amounts to a violation of WTO rules and whether protectionism in this case can be differentiated from genuine environmental concerns. It then argues that while lowering tariffs for environmental goods can serve as a carrot to promote dissemination of cleaner technologies, tariff deconsolidation is a legitimate stick to encourage polluting countries to move towards an international climate agreement. The paper further explores this view by undertaking a partialequilibrium simulation analysis to examine the impact of a unilateral unit increase in tariffs on the imports of the most carbon-intensive products from countries not committed to climate polices. Our results suggest that the committed importing countries would have to raise their tariffs only slightly to effect a significant decline in the imports of these products from the non-committed countries. For instance, a unit increase in the simple average applied tariffs on the imports of these carbon-intensive products in 2005 from our sample of non-committed exporting countries would reduce the imports of these products by an average 32.6% in Australia, 178% in Canada, 195% in the EU, 271% in Japan and 62% in the US, therebysuggesting the effectiveness of such a measure in pushing countries towards a global climate policy.

Market access and welfare: Is there a conflict?

Well known tariff reform rules that are guaranteed to increase welfare will not necessarily increase market access, while rules that are guaranteed to increase market access will not necessarily increase welfare. The present paper proposes a new set of tariff reforms that can achieve both objectives at the same time.

Production networks in the Asia-Pacific region : facts and policy implications

Production networks have been extensively developed in the Asia-Pacific region. This paper employs two micro-level approaches, case studies and econometric analysis, using JETRO's firm surveys which investigate Japanese affiliates operating in Southeast Asia. These two approaches found that production networks have extended, involving suppliers, across various nations in the Asia-Pacific region, and that production bases in host and home countries have different roles. A home country serves as a headquarters with services such as R&D, international marketing, and financing. A high tariff policy in a host country may foster domestic industries through the expansion of procurement from domestic suppliers, either indigenous or foreign, but it may discourage a country from becoming an export platform.

Correcting trade distortions in a small open economy

This paper considers the second-best strategy of correcting a wide variety of trade distortions in a small open economy with perfect competition in all markets. Using the tools of duality, we obtain some general properties of the structure and the levels of the optimal taxlsubsidy rates. The paper also analyzes the welfare effects of unilateral piecemeal trade policy reforms when some of the quota distortions—imposed by the foreign countries—are unalterable. It is shown that the merits of unilateral trade policy reforms that are emphasized in the literature crucially depend on the absence of unalterable foreign imposed quotas.

Modelos de concessão de transporte coletivo por ônibus: o caso da cidade de São Paulo e suas alternativas

O sistema de transporte coletivo por ônibus da cidade de São Paulo teve diversas mudanças nos últimos 25 anos, o que resultou em modelos de concessão distintos, impactando nos custos, nas receitas e na remuneração desse serviço, além da variação da qualidade decorrente destes fatores. O estudo analisa o caso da cidade de São Paulo, detalhando principalmente as formas de remuneração, financiamento, política tarifária e Taxa Interna de Retorno, desde 1990 até o início do ano de 2015; descreve também boas práticas de outros municípios, que não foram adotadas na capital paulista no período analisado. As manifestações de junho de 2013 abriram a janela de oportunidade para que o governo municipal implementasse as políticas de mobilidade urbana que, até então, eram rejeitadas pela mídia e por parte da sociedade. Os projetos realizados pelo governo nos anos seguintes ainda não foram suficientes para atender as expectativas dos usuários do transporte coletivo. Portanto, a partir da análise do modelo vigente e a conjuntura favorável para implementar novas mudanças, a pesquisa apresenta possíveis alternativas a serem consideradas em um novo modelo de concessão de transporte coletivo.

Tariffs and the Plano Real in Brazil

Includes bibliography

Estudo sobre a condição de coleta e tratamento de esgoto sanitário do município de Ubatuba-SP

The actual work broaches a study about the collection and treatment of sanitary sewage from the municipality of Ubatuba in its operational aspects and the tariff policy from the service. Themes related to the subject like the history of collection and treatment of sewage, its development in Brazil and its importance for public health and environmental preservation, as well as historical and geographical aspects of Ubatuba/SP, are present in the literature review. The methodology consists in guided visit in the colletion and treatment of sewage facilities and interview with technical managers. With the technical data obtained, it is made a discussion of the results and possible recommendations

Tarifa social e subsídio cruzado: o mito da universalidade do transporte público brasileiro

Pós-graduação em Direito - FCHS

Border Barriers in Agricultural Trade and the Impact of their Elimination: Evidence from East Asia

Abstract: By means of a GTAP based-CGE model, we investigate the impact of the elimination of import tariffs and non-tariff policy barriers (NTPBs) on agricultural trade towards East Asian FTAs. To do that, we first measure the NTPBs by employing a widely-used method derived from the literature on border effects. Next, by adding into the GTAP database our estimates on the NTPBs, which the original GTAP database by its nature does not succeed in incorporating, we compute the impact of the entire elimination of policy barriers (the complete reduction of import tariffs and of NTPBs) on GDP.

Manitoba's case, a submission presented to the Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations by the government of the province of Manitoba.

1. Introduction.--2. The constitutional relations of the dominion and the provinces.--3. The effects of federal monetary policy on western Canadian economy.--4. The effects of Federal Tariff policy on western Canadian economy.--5. The effects of declining income.--6. The financial problems of municipalities and school districts.--7. Analysis of Manitoba's treasury problem.--8. Manitoba's case--Summary and recommendations.--9. An examination of certain proposals for the readjustment of dominion - provincial financial relations.