Suggested answer to case study discussion question
They Tax Exports, Too:There are a number of possible reasons that a country would limit the
export of a product like cotton. First, if the government uses a tax, it would gain revenue.
Second, the limit on exports would tend to force additional sales of the product in the local
market, so the domestic price would fall below the world price, and domestic consumers would
benefit. Third, if the country is a large exporter of the product, then the world price will rise
when the country exports less, and the country can gain from an increase in its terms of trade. An
export ban is an extreme limitation, and two of the three possibilities do not apply. There is no
government revenue. Even if the world price of the export product increases, there are no exports
on which to receive the gain from the higher price paid by foreigners. The most likely reason for
the Indian prohibition of cotton exports is then the one remaining, that the ban benefits the local
consumers of cotton. Domestic producers of textiles gain from the lower price of cotton, an input
into their production.
Suggested answers to end of chapter questions and problems
1. You can calculate it if you know only the size of the tariff and the amount by which it
would reduce imports. (See Figure 8.4.)
2. Agree. The tariff raises the domestic price of the imported product, and domestic
producers of the product raise their price when the domestic price of imports increases.
3. The production effect of a tariff is the deadweight loss to the nation that occurs because the
tariff encourages some high-cost domestic production (production that is inefficient by the
4. The consumption effect of a tariff is the loss of consumer surplus for the units that
consumers would consume with free trade but do not consume when the tariff increases
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