Explaining International Differences in the Prices of Tradables and Non-Tradables (with a New Zealand Perspective)

The World Bank's International Comparison Program (ICP) data on national price levels for tradables and non-tradables (and goods compared to services) reveals that New Zealand has relatively high prices of both tradables and non-tradables when compared to a sample of over 40 OECD-Eurostat countries (Gemmell, 2013). The present paper seeks to explain both those observed international variations in non-tradables and tradables prices in general, and New Zealand's especially high prices in particular

Trade, Quality Reputations and Commercial Policy.

This paper extends recent developments on the role of firm reputations in markets where product quality is unobservable at the time of purchase to an international trading context. Its primary motivation is to demonstrate the implications of this approach to the problem of quality uncertainty for commercial policy, particularly the role of potential nontariff barriers, such as origin labeling requirements and minimum quality standards. Copyright 1989 by Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.