Differentiated Products and Evasion of Import Tariffs
Differentiated Products and Evasion of Import Tariffs
复制标题
差异化产品与规避进口关税
DOI：
10.1016/j.jinteco.2008.07.002
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发表时间：
2007
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Gaia Narciso
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
B. Javorcik;Gaia Narciso
一种新兴的文献显示了差异化产品贸易的一些独特特征。本文通过假设差异化产品可能会由于与评估其质量和价格相关的困难而受到更大的关税规避，从而对文献做出了贡献。利用1992-2003年间德国与10个东欧国家贸易的产品层面数据，我们发现了对这一假说的实证支持。我们发现，贸易差额，即德国报告的出口额与进口国报告的从德国进口额之间的差异，与10个国家中的8个国家的关税水平呈正相关。此外，我们还表明，差异化产品的贸易差额对关税水平的响应性大于同质产品。关税税率每提高一个百分点，同质产品的贸易差额增加0.4%，差异化产品的贸易差额增加1.7%。最后，数据表明，逃税是通过虚报进口价格而发生的，而不是少报数量或产品错误分类。
An emerging literature has demonstrated some unique characteristics of trade in differentiated products. This paper contributes to the literature by postulating that differentiated products may be subject to greater tariff evasion due to the difficulties associated with assessing their quality and price. Using product-level data on trade between Germany and 10 Eastern European countries during 1992–2003, we find empirical support for this hypothesis. We show that the trade gap, defined as the discrepancy between the value of exports reported by Germany and the value of imports from Germany reported by the importing country, is positively related to the level of tariff in 8 out of 10 countries. Further, we show that the responsiveness of the trade gap to the tariff level is greater for differentiated products than for homogeneous goods. A one-percentage-point increase in the tariff rate is associated with a 0.4% increase in the trade gap in the case of homogeneous products and a 1.7% increase in the case of differentiated products. Finally, the data indicate that tariff evasion takes place through misrepresentation of the import prices rather than underreporting of quantities or product misclassification.