Asymmetric Pass-Through of Anti-Dumping Duties

Abstract

This paper is ... interested in the pricing behavior of exporting firms and their responses to variations in costs and trade barriers. In doing so, we pay particular attention to anti-dumping duties and their special place among other geographical and trade barriers. ... Unlike the case of tariffs or countervailing duties, the implementation of anti-dumping measure is directly contingent on the prices of imports. Therefore the manner in which anti-dumping duties affect decisions of price-setting firms is different from that of any other trade barriers. That was pointed out by Marston (1990) and Blongen and Haynes (2002) but so far proper theoretical analysis of this trade policy instrument has been lacking. ... This paper aims to fill this gap by developing a simple pricing-to-market model in a linear demand specification. We show that the pass-through of anti-dumping duties is fundamentally different from that of tariffs, costs, or exchange rates. This theoretical notion is then supported by the empirical evidence. ... Proper understanding of the anti-dumping duty pass-through mechanism helps improve the accuracy of trade policies and the analysis of their welfare implications.