Scott C. Bradford

Paying the Price: Final Goods Protection in OECD Countries

This paper presents new measures of final goods trade protection in eight developed countries. The analysis exploits detailed, comprehensive, and careful price comparisons to derive estimates that, it is argued, reliably capture all kinds of barriers. The results show extensive protection. Japans average tariff equivalent is 57, those of the European countries range from 48 to 55, and that of the United States is lowest, at 12. An applied general-equilibrium analysis of this protection is conducted. The results include the following: Japans barriers impose large costs on itself; Japanese and U.S. barriers greatly burden poorer countries; the United States would benefit significantly from multilateral, but not unilateral, opening.

Protection and jobs: explaining the structure of trade barriers across industries

Abstract This paper develops a model of protection and tests it using US data, including new protection measures. We find that protection in an industry increases with its employment but not with its level of output. We also find that lobbying entails significant transactions costs. We have limited evidence that industry characteristics, such as the number of firms and geographical concentration, affect protection. Nested tests imply that assuming lump-sum rebating of import revenues or rents is justified. The results also suggest that US policy makers weight a dollar of campaign contributions about 15% more heavily than a dollar of national income.

The Payoff to America from Globalisation

This article summarizes the economic payoff to the United States from its postwar trade opening and estimates the potential future gains from more opening going forward. To quantify these gains, we survey different methodologies and estimates. We find that trade opening since World War II has added between

Modeling Distribution Services and Assessing their Welfare Effects in a General Equilibrium Framework

800 billion to

Potential economic reforms in North Korea: a dynamic general equilibrium model

1.4 trillion to the US economy, or about

Protection and unemployment

7,000 to

The Heckscher-Ohlin-Vanek Model of Trade: Why Does it Fail? When Does it Work?

13,000 per household. More speculative estimates of the potential additional gains from removing the rest of US trade barriers range from

The Welfare Effects of Distribution Regulations in OECD Countries

400 billion to

A Dynamic General Equilibrium Model of Phased Korean Reunification

1.3 trillion, or about

The Economic Reunification of Korea: A Dynamic General Equilibrium Model

4,000 to