By Mary Amiti and Jozef Konings*
This paper estimates the productivity gains from reducing tariffs on final goods and from reducing tariffs on intermediate inputs. Lower output tariffs can increase productivity by inducing tougher import competition, whereas cheaper imported inputs can raise productivity via learning, variety, and quality effects. We use Indonesian manufacturing census data from 1991 to 2001, which include plant-level information on imported inputs. The results show that a 10 percentage point fall in input tariffs leads to a productivity gain of 12 percent for firms that import their inputs, at least twice as high as any gains from reducing output tariffs. (JEL F12, F13, L16, O14,O19, O24)
本文估计了降低最终产品关税和中间投入关税对生产率收益。较低的产出关税可以通过引入更激烈的进口竞争来提高生产率,而较便宜的进口投入可以通过学习、品种和质量效应来提高生产率。我们使用了印度尼西亚1991年至2001年制造业普查数据,其中包括工厂一级的进口投入信息。结果显示,投入关税每下降10个百分点,进口投入的企业的生产率就会提高12%,至少是降低产出关税所带来的收益的两倍。