Differentiated Products and Evasion of Import Tariffs

Javorcik, Beata S. ; Narciso, Gaia

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS;    AVERAGE TARIFF;    AVERAGE TRADE;    BILATERAL TRADE;    BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-4123
RP-ID  :  WPS4123

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Emerging literature has demonstratedsome unique characteristics of trade in differentiatedproducts. This paper contributes to the literature bypostulating that differentiated products may be subject togreater tariff evasion due to the difficulties associatedwith assessing their quality and price. Using product-leveldata on trade between Germany and 10 Eastern Europeancountries during 1992-2003, the authors find empiricalsupport for this hypothesis. They show that the trade gap,defined as the discrepancy between the value of exportsreported by Germany and the value of imports from Germanyreported by the importing country, is positively related tothe level of tariff in 8 out of 10 countries. Further, theauthors show that the responsiveness of the trade gap to thetariff level is greater for differentiated products than forhomogeneous goods. A one-percentage-point increase in thetariff rate is associated with a 0.6 percent increase in thetrade gap in the case of homogeneous products and a 2.1percent increase in the case of differentiated products.Finally, the data indicate that greater tariff evasionobserved for differentiated products tends to take placethrough misrepresentation of the import prices.