Université de Lausanne
Ecole des HEC
Département d'économétrie et d'économie politique

Thursday April 10, 2008, 12:00
Extranef, room 126

Kevin O'ROURKE
(Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)

The structure of protection and growth in the late 19th century

Abstract
There is a vast literature on the relationship between trade policy and growth, including several papers on the late 19th century experience (e.g. O'Rourke 2000, Clemens and Williamson 2004). However, standard trade models suggest that the structure of protection, rather than the overall average tariff level, should matter for resource allocation and hence for growth. This paper assembles a database of agricultural, manufacturing and revenue tariffs for 10 countries between 1875 and 1913, and asks what the relationship was between each of these variables and (a) aggregate (b) sectoral growth.

Web site of the seminar (with paper online): http://www.hec.unil.ch/deep/evenements-english/e-sem-all-2007-08.htm