A Firm's-Eye View of Policy and Fiscal Reforms in Cameroon

After decades of heavy trade restrictions, fiscal distortions, and currency overvaluation, Cameroon implemented important commercial and fiscal policy reforms. Almost simultaneously, a major CFA devaluation cut the international price of Cameroon's currency in half. The authors examine the effe...

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Main Authors:	Gauthier, Bernard, Soloaga, Isidro, Tybout, James
Format:	Publications & Research
Language:	en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2015
Subjects:	output import prices imports industrialization input prices input use input-output tables intermediate goods intermediate inputs international prices international trade metal products oil overvaluation policy makers political economy preferential tariff price comparisons producer prices producers product differentiation product markets production costs productivity productivity growth profit margin profit margins protection measures protection rates rates of protection real exchange rate returns to scale sales scale effects structural adjustment tariff data tariff protection tariff rate tariff rates tariff reductions tax rates tax reform tax reforms tax revenues total costs total sales tradable goods trade effects trade liberalization trade policies trade reforms trade restrictions transaction costs value of output wages world prices zero tariffs policy reform fiscal reforms devaluation currency devaluation incentives export oriented industries commercial policy pricing
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21350

id	okr-10986-21350
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-213502021-04-23T14:04:01Z A Firm's-Eye View of Policy and Fiscal Reforms in Cameroon Gauthier, Bernard Soloaga, Isidro Tybout, James output import prices imports industrialization input prices input use input-output tables intermediate goods intermediate inputs international prices international trade metal products oil overvaluation policy makers political economy preferential tariff price comparisons producer prices producers product differentiation product markets production costs productivity productivity growth profit margin profit margins protection measures protection rates rates of protection real exchange rate returns to scale sales scale effects structural adjustment tariff data tariff protection tariff rate tariff rates tariff reductions tax rates tax reform tax reforms tax revenues total costs total sales tradable goods trade effects trade liberalization trade policies trade reforms trade restrictions transaction costs value of output wages world prices zero tariffs policy reform fiscal reforms trade liberalization tariff reductions devaluation currency devaluation incentives tax reforms export oriented industries commercial policy pricing After decades of heavy trade restrictions, fiscal distortions, and currency overvaluation, Cameroon implemented important commercial and fiscal policy reforms. Almost simultaneously, a major CFA devaluation cut the international price of Cameroon's currency in half. The authors examine the effects of these reforms on the incentive structure that manufacturing firms face. Did they create a coherent set of new signals? Was the net effect to stimulate the production of tradable goods? Was the dispersion of tax burdens lessened? They address each of these questions using a cost function decomposition applied to detailed firm-level panel data. They observe that Cameroon's reforms appear to have sent clear new signals to manufacturers, as the effective rate of protection fell by between 80 and 120 percentage points. Unlike trade liberalization, neither tax reforms nor the CFA devaluation had a major systemic effect on profit margins. But the CFA devaluation did twist relative prices dramatically in favor of exportable goods, so export-oriented firms exhibited rapid output growth. 2015-01-26T17:51:20Z 2015-01-26T17:51:20Z 2000-09 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21350 en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 2442 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Cameroon
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	output import prices imports industrialization input prices input use input-output tables intermediate goods intermediate inputs international prices international trade metal products oil overvaluation policy makers political economy preferential tariff price comparisons producer prices producers product differentiation product markets production costs productivity productivity growth profit margin profit margins protection measures protection rates rates of protection real exchange rate returns to scale sales scale effects structural adjustment tariff data tariff protection tariff rate tariff rates tariff reductions tax rates tax reform tax reforms tax revenues total costs total sales tradable goods trade effects trade liberalization trade policies trade reforms trade restrictions transaction costs value of output wages world prices zero tariffs policy reform fiscal reforms trade liberalization tariff reductions devaluation currency devaluation incentives tax reforms export oriented industries commercial policy pricing
spellingShingle	output import prices imports industrialization input prices input use input-output tables intermediate goods intermediate inputs international prices international trade metal products oil overvaluation policy makers political economy preferential tariff price comparisons producer prices producers product differentiation product markets production costs productivity productivity growth profit margin profit margins protection measures protection rates rates of protection real exchange rate returns to scale sales scale effects structural adjustment tariff data tariff protection tariff rate tariff rates tariff reductions tax rates tax reform tax reforms tax revenues total costs total sales tradable goods trade effects trade liberalization trade policies trade reforms trade restrictions transaction costs value of output wages world prices zero tariffs policy reform fiscal reforms trade liberalization tariff reductions devaluation currency devaluation incentives tax reforms export oriented industries commercial policy pricing Gauthier, Bernard Soloaga, Isidro Tybout, James A Firm's-Eye View of Policy and Fiscal Reforms in Cameroon
geographic_facet	Africa Cameroon
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 2442
description	After decades of heavy trade restrictions, fiscal distortions, and currency overvaluation, Cameroon implemented important commercial and fiscal policy reforms. Almost simultaneously, a major CFA devaluation cut the international price of Cameroon's currency in half. The authors examine the effects of these reforms on the incentive structure that manufacturing firms face. Did they create a coherent set of new signals? Was the net effect to stimulate the production of tradable goods? Was the dispersion of tax burdens lessened? They address each of these questions using a cost function decomposition applied to detailed firm-level panel data. They observe that Cameroon's reforms appear to have sent clear new signals to manufacturers, as the effective rate of protection fell by between 80 and 120 percentage points. Unlike trade liberalization, neither tax reforms nor the CFA devaluation had a major systemic effect on profit margins. But the CFA devaluation did twist relative prices dramatically in favor of exportable goods, so export-oriented firms exhibited rapid output growth.
format	Publications & Research
author	Gauthier, Bernard Soloaga, Isidro Tybout, James
author_facet	Gauthier, Bernard Soloaga, Isidro Tybout, James
author_sort	Gauthier, Bernard
title	A Firm's-Eye View of Policy and Fiscal Reforms in Cameroon
title_short	A Firm's-Eye View of Policy and Fiscal Reforms in Cameroon
title_full	A Firm's-Eye View of Policy and Fiscal Reforms in Cameroon
title_fullStr	A Firm's-Eye View of Policy and Fiscal Reforms in Cameroon
title_full_unstemmed	A Firm's-Eye View of Policy and Fiscal Reforms in Cameroon
title_sort	firm's-eye view of policy and fiscal reforms in cameroon
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2015
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/21350
_version_	1764447976472707072

A Firm's-Eye View of Policy and Fiscal Reforms in Cameroon

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