SFB 303 Discussion Paper No. A - 573
Author: Schuhmacher, Frank
Title: Strategic Trade Policy under Asymmetric Information about Market Demand
Abstract: This paper examines strategic trade policy with unilateral intervention under asymmetric
information about market demand. In an international Cournot-duopoly, the choice of the
domestic country's export subsidy signals the domestic country's private information to the
foreign firm. It is shown that this signalling effect weakens the well-known commitment effect
of positive export subsidies. The optimal export subsidy under asymmetric information is
smaller than the optimal export subsidy with perfect information. If the range of the uncertain
market demand is sufficiently large, then the optimal export subsidy is negative and the
domestic country's welfare may be smaller than the foreign country's welfare.
Keywords: Strategic trade policy, asymmetric information, market demand
JEL-Classification-Number: F13
Creation-Date: April 1997
URL: ../1998/a/bonnsfa573.pdf"
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