Scott C. Bradford and Robert Z. Lawrence use the underlying data from purchasing power parity surveys to estimate the potential benefits from fully integrating goods markets among major OECD countries. These data are particularly useful because they are comprehensive, and every effort has been made to ensure that they are comparable. Input-output tables are used to eliminate distribution margins from final goods prices and thereby provide estimates of ex-factory prices. Price differentials have been taken as measures of barriers, and the welfare effects of eliminating these barriers have been estimated in a general equilibrium model. The study also provides insights into the relative openness of individual OECD countries to the world economy and the degree to which Europe has become a single market.
Om författaren
Scott C. Bradford was a Visiting Fellow at the Institute. He is an assistant professor at the department of economics, Brigham Young University. His research interests include international trade, political economy, and the Japanese economy. His work has appeared in The American Economic Review, The Review of Economics and Statistics, and the Journal of International Economics.Robert Z. Lawrence was a senior fellow and also the Albert L. Williams Professor of Trade and Investment at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He served as a member of President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers from 1999 to 2000. He was the New Century Chair as a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution between 1997 and 1998.