An Empirical Investigation of the Determinants of Korean Tariffs : Political Power and Competitiveness in Industry

초록

This paper empirically investigates two determinants of Korean tariffs in industry: political power and competitiveness. In this paper, the political power of industrial interest groups is measured by the number of firms in each industry. Also, this paper uses a trade specialization index and a value-added rate for each industry to consider the industrial competitiveness factor. According to the main finding in this paper, competitiveness in the domestic industry and political power play a critical role in explaining the Korean tariff structure. In particular, this paper concludes that Korean industries that have weaker political power and stronger competitiveness observe lower tariff rates.

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