The Doubtful Profitability of Foggy Pricing* A particular tariff option is said to be foggy when another option or a combination of other tariff options offered by the same firm is always less expensive regardless of the usage profile of any customer. Alternatively, tariff fogginess may refer to the whole set of tariff options and it is related to the low likelihood that a particular tariff opt...

The greatest achievement of ASEAN’s intra-regional economic cooperation since its inception in 1976 is the realization ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), which started with tariff cuts 1993. AFTA was completed January 2018 elimination tariffs. itself an FTA unusually high standard internationally, level liberalization exceeding even that TPP 11. However, when examined from aspect utilization, case T...

Using estimates of protection in the EU market against US exports, this paper illustrates the relative importance of natural and policy sources of protection and the measurement errors induced in the measurement of effective protection by omitting transactions costs. It also considers protection in the EU 'domestic' and export market, and the implications of the elimination of tariff barriers o...

Non-tariff measures are pervasive. In the area of merchandise trade, although tariffs have fallen worldwide, there has been no shortage of bureaucratic imagination in conceiving new non-tariff measures, or in turning existing regulatory instruments to protectionist ends. In the area of services trade, there is also a growing realisation that domestic regulatory regimes designed to address legit...

The extensive reform measures introduced in the early 90s in India provide a unique opportunity to study policy experiments aimed at reducing barriers to entry and increasing product market competition. We use a rich, comprehensive, plant-level dataset for the period 1986-87 to 1994-95 to identify the effects of de-licensing, liberalization of foreign direct investment (FDI) and the reduction o...

Low-income households spend a substantial share of their income on utility services such as electricity, heating and water. The difficulty these socially vulnerable consumers have in affording further tariff increases is often used as an argument against tariff reform. However, detailed information on the utility expenditures of different consumer groups and the affordability implications of ta...