Choked by Red Tape? The Political Economy of Wasteful Trade Barriers

Choked by Red Tape? The Political Economy of Wasteful Trade Barriers∗ [Preliminary and Incomplete]

Red-tape barriers (RTBs) are an important source of trade costs, but have received little attention in the trade literature. In this paper we take a first step toward a theory of RTBs, and show that their implications can be very different from those of more traditional trade barriers. The model highlights that RTBs have important impacts on the extensive margin of trade, and yields rich compar...

From Red Tape to Smart Tape: Administrative Simplification in OECD Countries

One of the most common complaints raised by businesses and citizens in OECD countries is the amount and complexity of government formalities and paperwork. Enterprises and citizens spend much time and devote significant resources to activities such as filling out forms, applying for permits and licences, reporting business information, notifying changes etc. In many cases, practices have become...

An Investigation into the Hegelian Government's Functions in Organizing the Political Economy of Geographical Space

Aims & Backgrounds :The political economy of space studies the spatial patterns of capital, public goods, infrastructure, and how to adopt the necessary measures for the continuation of capital accumulation by political actors. Obviously, among different frames of political economy, the state-oriented approach seeks to study the role of actors and governing institutions in who distribution of p...

The Political Economy of Nontariff Trade Barriers in Emerging Economies

Trade, inequality, and the political economy of institutions

This paper investigates the relationship between international trade and the quality of economic institutions. We model institutions as fixed costs of entry, in a framework that has two key features. First, preferences over entry costs differ across firms and depend on firm size. Larger firms prefer to set higher costs of entry, in order to reduce competition. Second, these costs are endogenous...