Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/26972 
Year of Publication: 
2006
Series/Report no.: 
Center Discussion Paper No. 931
Publisher: 
Yale University, Economic Growth Center, New Haven, CT
Abstract: 
The Lerner paradox is the possibility that a tariff on an import good might worsen a country's terms of trade, and the Metzler paradox is the possibility that a tariff on an import good might reduce a country's import price. In a general equilibrium framework with multiple goods, this paper shows that the combination of the invertibility of the Slutsky matrix for the world economy and its similarity across countries will preclude both of the paradoxes, and that the combination of the gross-substitutes assumption for the world demand and the substitute assumption for the demand of an import country property of goods will preclude the Lerner paradox. A modified condition for the Slutsky matrix combined with the gross substitute for the world demand will do the same for the Metzler paradox. A concept of non-surpassed diagonal is used in deriving the result.
Subjects: 
Lerner paradox
Metzler paradox
tariffs
terms of trade
gross substitutes
dominant diagonal matrix.
JEL: 
C20
F02
F11
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
151.53 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.