Title

Imperfect Subsutitutes and Trade Policy under Cournot Duopoly

Abstract

We study a duopoly model of trade and its trade policy. The two country trade model to be discussed is the following. There are three goods (0,1 and 2). Good 0 is produced by perfectly competitive firms, and the good 1 and the good 2 are imperfect substitutes, each produced by a home and a foreign monopolist respectively. The good 1 and the good 2 are produced with nonlinear cost functions. Each monopolist behaves in Cournot fashion. The home country can consider an import tariff and / or an export subsidy as policy instruments. In this paper we shall consider the uniqueness of the general equilibrium solution and the policy effects of tariffs and subsidy. Comparative static analysis in terms of an import tariff and an export subsidy is presented. The paper also considers the home country's policy implications of an import tariff and an export subsidy on production, trade, and consumption of each country's good, and on the welfare of each country and the world as a whole.

JEL classification : F12, F13

Seiichi KATAYAMA
Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration
Kobe University
Rokkodai-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe
657-8501 Japan
Phone: (81) 78 803 7036
Fax: (81) 78 803 7059