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Preferential Trade Agreements, Market Power, and Product Differentiation
Journal article   Open access

Preferential Trade Agreements, Market Power, and Product Differentiation

Paul E Jensen and Vibhas Madan
Journal of economic integration, v 19(1)
01 Mar 2004
url
https://doi.org/10.11130/jei.2004.19.1.162View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)Maybe Open Access (Publisher Bronze) Open

Abstract

Capital costs Cost efficiency Exporters Foreign exchange rates Industrial market Market power Market prices Product differentiation Trade agreements Unit costs
Preferential trade agreements (PTAs) usually result in increased trade amongst member countries and lower prices within the PTA. Thus the markets are assumed to be ``more competitive'' because lower prices are taken to imply ``decreased market power'' due to a reduction in price-cost margins. In this paper we empirically examine the relationship between changes in market power and product differentiation within the context of a duopoly framework with restricted entry. Using industry level trade data from the EEC we show that the formation of a PTA may increase the market power of PTA-exporters and lower the market power of non-PTA exporters. In addition, we show that these market power are more pronounced for less differentiated products.

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