Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/226095 
Year of Publication: 
2004
Series/Report no.: 
wiiw Balkan Observatory Working Papers No. 057
Publisher: 
The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw), Vienna
Abstract: 
For eight Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia & Montenegro, and Slovenia) the welfare cost of tariff protection on imports of goods based on recent years tariff data (2001 to 2003) is computed. The computation is based on a partial equilibrium framework with constant elasticity demands and perfect substitutes with a compilation of 6000 tariff lines. The focus on the import market allows to identify tariff peaks but the welfare loss of protection is concentrated in a small set of products, namely food products, tobacco, textiles and agriculture. With a simulated extrapolation to imports of services and when the administrative cost of tax collection is taken into account, the welfare cost is equal, on average, to 0.7% of GDP, that is $ 0.9 billion ($ 18 per capita). In Romania, the highest protection deals with intermediate goods and capital goods -as in import substitution policies used in the past by developing countries- strengthening the perverse effect of trade policy on economic growth.
Subjects: 
Cost of trade protection
tax policies
Southeastern European Countries
JEL: 
F13
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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