THE WELFARE EFFECTS OF DISTRIBUTION REGULATIONS IN OECD COUNTRIES

Abstract

This article presents new data on distribution margins in eight OECD countries and uses an Applied General Equilibrium (AGE) framework to assess the welfare impacts of inefficient distribution. I estimate the extent to which regulations inflate margins. A comparison of margins across countries finds, in contrast to other studies, that Japan's margins are unusually high. The AGE simulations imply that inefficient distribution imposes substantial welfare costs, especially in Japan, with the costs rivaling those of trade barriers. The results also imply that distribution impediments can significantly reduce imports. (JEL D58, F13, L81)

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 16 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.