Topic: Trade Liberalization and Price-index Inequality in a Low-income Country

Date: March 18, 2026 (Wednesday)

Time: 15:30 - 16:30

Venue: T1-302-R1

Language: English

Abstract: We examine the impact of tariff reductions on  cost-of-living inequality in a low-income country: Cambodia. We use a  novel dataset on household consumption that distinguishes between  imported, domestic, and home-produced goods within finely disaggregated  product categories. We find that wealthier households have substantially  higher expenditure share on imported final goods. Consequently, these  households experience greater reductions in the cost of living from  tariff cuts. This pro-rich effect is further amplified by the  disproportionate reliance of wealthier households on the domestic goods  that use imported inputs more intensively. We argue that the positive  correlation between income and import expenditure shares is likely a  common feature of low-income countries, and ignoring this heterogeneity  may lead to a substantial underestimation of the pro-rich effects of  trade liberalization in such economies.

Biography: Mi Dai is a Professor of Economics at the  Business School of Beijing Normal University (BNUBS), where he also  serves as the Head of the Department of International Economics and  Trade. His research lies at the intersection of international trade and  development economics. Professor Dai's work has been published in  leading international journals, including the Journal of International  Economics, the Journal of Development Economics, and the Journal of  Economic Behavior and Organization, as well as in top Chinese economicjournals. He currently serves as Co-Editor of the Journal of  International Trade (《国际贸易问题》) and as an Associate Editor of Asian  Economic Journal.