Trade Development and Political Economy presents: Kamal Saggi

Trade Development and Political Economy Present: Speaker Kamal Saggi Equilibrium parallel import policies and international market structure (coauthored with Santanu Roy) In a North-South vertically differentiated duopoly, the authors derive equilibrium government policies towards parallel imports (Pis). By incorporating strategic interaction at the policy-setting stage and the product market, the model sheds new light on (i) the effects of PI policies on pricing behavior of firms and (ii) the interdependence of national PI policies. If demand asymmetry across countries is sufficiently large, the North forbids Pis to ensure its firm sells in the South thereby generating international price discrimination – the South’s most preferred market outcome - as the equilibrium. When demand structures are relatively similar across countries, the North permits Pis and uniform pricing - its most preferred market outcome - obtains. Kamal Saggi is Professor of Economics at Vanderbilt University. His primary fields of interest are international trade, economic development, and growth. Most of his research is motivated by questions that lie at the interface of trade and development. Two major themes underlying his current research are: the inter-relationships between intellectual property protection, foreign direct investment, and international technology transfer; and the economics of the multilateral trading system and the World Trade Organization (WTO).