Voluntary Export Restraints on Automobiles: Evaluating a Strategic Trade Policy

WP 393

Posted: 20 Jan 1998

See all articles by Steven Berry

Steven Berry

Yale University - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Yale University - Cowles Foundation

James A. Levinsohn

University of Michigan; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Ariel Pakes

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Harvard University - Department of Economics

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Abstract

In May, 1981, a voluntary export restraint (VER) was placed on exports of automobiles from Japan to the United States. As trade policies go, this one was important. The automobile industry is the largest manufacturing industry in the United States and the initiation of the VER captured head-lines in the popular press. At about the same time, though to much less fanfare, international trade theorists were obtaining (then) startling results from models of international trade in imperfectly competitive markets. These models suggested that in imperfectly competitive markets, an activist trade policy might enhance national welfare. In this paper, we provide some empirical evidence on whether the these new theoretical possibilities might actually apply to the policy of VERs.

JEL Classification: F10, F14, L62

Suggested Citation

Berry, Steven T. and Levinsohn, James A. and Pakes, Ariel, Voluntary Export Restraints on Automobiles: Evaluating a Strategic Trade Policy. WP 393, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=46824

Steven T. Berry (Contact Author)

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James A. Levinsohn

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Ariel Pakes

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

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Harvard University - Department of Economics ( email )

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