Are the 'Poor' Getting Globalized?
One reason that poor people may not capture the full benefit from participation in international markets is that the goods they produce tend to be subject to relatively high trade barriers. This paper analyzes market access barriers faced by househ...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/979411539182283136/Are-the-Poor-Getting-Globalized http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30576 |
| Summary: | One reason that poor people may not
capture the full benefit from participation in international
markets is that the goods they produce tend to be subject to
relatively high trade barriers. This paper analyzes market
access barriers faced by households in different income
deciles by matching household survey data from India based
on the industrial classification of their economic activity.
Tariffs in international markets are higher, and nontariff
measures more numerous, on goods produced by poor workers
than on goods produced by rich workers. Tariffs faced by
exporters are higher on goods produced in rural and more
remote areas than on those in urban centers, on goods
produced by informal enterprises than by formal ones, and on
goods produced by women than by men. Furthermore, the global
reduction in tariffs from 1996 to 2012 failed to ameliorate
these differences. How did we get there? Efforts to protect
poor workers across countries resulted in a coordination
problem. Indeed, tariff protection in China and the United
States is higher on goods produced by poor workers than on
goods produced by rich workers. Therefore, if poor workers
are employed in similar sectors, then each country's
attempts to protect its poor workers by imposing higher
tariffs and more nontariff measures on such goods will
reduce the access of all poor workers to international
markets, and thus limit the gains from trade. |
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