Distributional and revenue raising arguments for tariffs

In: Journal of development economics, Band 26, Heft 1, S. 77-101

Abstract

The paper analyzes distributional and revenue-raising arguments for tariffs in a general equilibrium model of a small open economy. It characterizes tariff rates in a special case to get greater insight into their determinants, uses numerical examples calibrated on Brazilian and Turkish data to illustrate the sensitivity of optimal policies to underlying economic characteristics and objectives of policy, and quantifies the losses from unavailability of tariffs in small open economies