My library button

No image available

Import Price Elasticities

Reconsidering the Evidence

by Helene Erkel-Rousse, Daniel Mirza ยท 2004

ISBN:  Unavailable

Category: Unavailable

Page count: 25

Recent economic geography and trade empirical studies based on monopolistic competition suggest high levels of trade price elasticities (between 3 and 11). However, price elasticity estimations in trade equations using unit values as price proxies usually lead to lower values of around unity. We show that those inconclusive results may be due to some misspecification in these equations as well as measurement errors in prices. When suitable instrumental variables are used, within a panel of industrialized countries, we obtain high price elasticities, the majority ranging from 1 to 13. The highest estimates correspond to industries producing homogeneous goods.