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Assessing the Effects of Seasonal Tariff‐rate Quotas on Vegetable Prices in Switzerland
Author(s) -
Loginova Daria,
Portmann Marco,
Huber Martin
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.157
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1477-9552
pISSN - 0021-857X
DOI - 10.1111/1477-9552.12424
Subject(s) - volatility (finance) , economics , tariff , estimation , agricultural economics , international economics , econometrics , management
Causal estimation of the short‐term effects of tariff‐rate quotas (TRQs) on vegetable producer prices is hampered by the large variety and different growing seasons of vegetables and is therefore rarely performed. We quantify the effects of Swiss seasonal TRQs on domestic producer prices of a variety of vegetables based on a difference‐in‐differences estimation using a novel dataset of weekly producer prices for Switzerland and neighbouring countries. We find that TRQs increase prices of most vegetables by more than 20% above the prices in neighbouring countries during the main harvest time for most vegetables and even more than 50% for some vegetables. The effects are stronger for more perishable vegetables and for conventionally produced ones compared with organic vegetables. However, we do not find clear‐cut effects of TRQs on the week‐to‐week price volatility of vegetables although the overall lower price volatility in Switzerland compared with neighbouring countries might be a result of the TRQ system in place.