Economic Consequences of Cabotage Restrictions

• Tác giả: Russell Hillberry
• Ngôn ngữ: eng
• Ký hiệu phân loại: 331.1 Labor force and market
• Thông tin xuất bản: Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024
• Bộ sưu tập: Tài liệu truy cập mở
• ID: 302493
• Chủ đề: 1. CABOTAGE; 2. JONES ACT; 3. MARITIME SHIPPING; 4. PUERTO RICA

Tóm tắt

This paper studies the consequences of a U.S. cabotage law for Puerto Rico (PR). Data on ship arrivals in PR show that the fleet of U.S. vessels that call there lacks capacity for carrying non-containerized freight. Empirical estimation using trade data shows that PR's imports of sea-shipped final products are biased against U.S. mainland sources. This bias is strongest for heavy products and products not typically shipped in containers. Among upstream products, a strong bias against imports of sea-shipped products applies to all sources. Estimated tariff-equivalent costs among final products imply static annual welfare losses of 1.1 percent of household consumption (03 per person). The same tariff-equivalent cost estimates imply that the law raises the cost of investment in PR by 3.0 percent. The observed bias against sea-shipped inputs in PR's imports may result from long-run industry location decisions that have been influenced by the law's presence.