The authors thank Karine Onfroy for helpful assistance concerning dataset building. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peerreviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.
By using a new database covering French international trade between 1836 and 1938 this paper focuses on the country's specialisation in textiles. It demonstrates, for the first time, the major influence of trade policy on French international trade in textiles during the first globalisation. Tariffs appear to be crucial determinants of specialisation measured by the Lafay Index. Tariffs are also major determinants of intra-industry trade in textiles. By analysing changes in tariffs between raw textiles and finished textiles and decorrelation between tariffs we show that an effective trade protection approach was applied by successive French governments in order to sustain the industrial competitiveness of textiles. Trade policy slowed down textile de-specialisation until WWI.
La dispersion des tarifs douaniers selon la provenance des produits (1850-1913) : discrimination de la politique commerciale Résumé Cette contribution met au jour, pour la première fois à notre connaissance, l'existence d'une dispersion des tarifs douaniers de la France selon la provenance des produits entre 1850 et 1913. Si une partie de cette dispersion résulte de biais liés à la constitution des nomenclatures du Tableau général du commerce de la France, elle révèle néanmoins l'existence de pratiques discriminatoires à l'encontre de certains pays pour certains produits. Le principe même de cette dispersion tarifaire (qui n'est pas spécifique à la France) introduit des doutes quant à la robustesse des travaux empiriques conduit sur le thème de la corrélation entre tarif douanier et croissance (tariff-growth paradox) et sur la manière dont a été traité le thème de la protection effective. Elle doit selon nous ouvrir la voie à des travaux qui réintroduisent la dimension pays dans l'étude de la politique commerciale fin XIXe.
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