Anti-Competitive and Rent-Shifting Aspects of Domestic-Content Provisions in Regional Trade Blocks

42 Pages Posted: 28 Dec 2006 Last revised: 31 Oct 2022

See all articles by Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes

Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes

SKEMA Business School; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

James R. Markusen

University of Colorado at Boulder - Department of Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Thomas F. Rutherford

Centre for Energy Policy and Economics

Date Written: October 1993

Abstract

Regional trade agreements must specify domestic-content rules (rules of origin) that define the conditions under which a good qualifies as 'domestic' and so may be freely traded within the block. The paper analyzes such rules, focussing in particular on oligopolistic industries in which foreign multinationals producing within the block rely much more on imported intermediate inputs than do domestic firms. In such a situation, we argue that domestic content provisions are anti-competitive, reducing overall final output of the industry, and shift rents (in the absence of free entry) to domestic firms. It is possible that the anti-competitive aspect of the rules are sufficiently strong that total industry profits rise and the equilibrium demand for the substitute domestic inputs falls (the scale effect of reduced output outweighs a substitution effect in favor of domestic intermediates). The latter effect is more likely to the extent that the foreign multinationals can switch from producing within the block to exporting to the block. These ideas are then examined numerically using an applied general-equilibrium model of the North American auto industry.

Suggested Citation

Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio and Markusen, James R. and Rutherford, Thomas F., Anti-Competitive and Rent-Shifting Aspects of Domestic-Content Provisions in Regional Trade Blocks (October 1993). NBER Working Paper No. w4512, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=480263

Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes (Contact Author)

SKEMA Business School ( email )

Avenue Willy Brandt, Euralille
Lille, 59777
France

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

James R. Markusen

University of Colorado at Boulder - Department of Economics ( email )

Campus Box 256
Boulder, CO 80309
United States
303-492-0748 (Phone)
303-492-8960 (Fax)

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Thomas F. Rutherford

Centre for Energy Policy and Economics ( email )

ETH-Zentrum
Zurich, CH-8092
United States
+41 (0)44/632 6359 (Phone)
+41 (0)44/632 1622 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.cepe.ethz.ch/

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
45
Abstract Views
987
PlumX Metrics