PROTECTIVE AND REVENUE RAISING TRADE TAXES: THEORY AND AN APPLICATION TO INDIA

Abstract

This paper lays out an analytical framework which is general enough to encompass two prominent approaches to trade policy analysis in developing countries. These are (1) the Ramsey-Samuelson-Diamond-Mirrlees public finance tradition as applied to open economies and (2) the effective protection tradition stemming from the work of Balassa and Corden. Such a unified perspective emphasizes the critical role of assumptions about domestic fiscal instruments in the appropriateness of trade policy advice. The paper obtains analytical characterizations of desirable protective and revenue-raising trade taxes in various circumstances and, inter alia, identifies directions of reform. The quantitative significance of these ideas is illustrated by calculating such tariffs in a general equilibrium model of the Indian economy.