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OECD Trade Policy Papers

This series is designed to make available to a wider readership selected trade policy studies prepared for use within the OECD.

NB. No. 1 to No. 139 were released under the previous series title OECD Trade Policy Working Papers.

English

Measuring competition in services markets with pass-through and speed of adjustment

Making trade work for all and harnessing popular support for openness to trade depends on consumers benefitting from lower prices and broader product variety. The present study reveals that those benefits depend on competition in services markets, in particular in telecommunication. These findings result from employing an industrial organisation framework to estimate the transmission of prices from the world market to consumers of certain services in local markets (distribution, transport, and financial services). The OECD Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (OECD STRI) is used to explore the relationship between the pass-through rate of input prices to consumer prices and policy measures that capture the openness and strength of competition in services markets. The OECD STRI in telecommunications is found to be associated with a more complete and faster pass-through of prices in all markets studied. The results also illustrate the crucial role played by the internet in allowing for price comparisons that generate competitive pressure on distributors.

English

Keywords: Services trade restrictions, Pass-through rates, Cointegration, Price signals
JEL: C1: Mathematical and Quantitative Methods / Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General; D41: Microeconomics / Market Structure, Pricing, and Design / Market Structure, Pricing, and Design: Perfect Competition; D23: Microeconomics / Production and Organizations / Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights; L11: Industrial Organization / Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance / Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
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