The Catfish Antidumping in Perfect and Imperfect Competition and the Role of Aquaculture in Farmers’ Happiness

Abstract

This dissertation consists of three chapters. Two focus on trade policy issues and provide empirical evidence for effectiveness of U.S. antidumping measures under Byrd Amendment. The Byrd Amendment permits US firms that petition successfully for antidumping duties to collect tariff revenues. Whether these payments strengthen the duty’s ability to raise price depends crucially on market structure. The first chapter explores the price effects of antidumping duties under the Byrd Amendment in a competitive market situation. In a competitive market where domestic and imported goods are imperfect substitutes, the payments are akin to a production subsidy and thus undermine the duty’s ability to raise price. Applying the theory to the “catfish war,” antidumping measures taken by the US against Vietnam are shown to have had a modest yet positive effect on the US price. Although the weak price effect is consistent with supply enlargement induced by the payments, our econometric results suggest substitution effects coupled with incidence shifting are stronger causal factors. In the second chapter, the Byrd Amendment is justified to enhance tariff effects on the home price and trade flows under the Bertrand competition. The estimated increase associated with the duty is very small in price and sales of domestic fillets and insignificant on farm price. The result confirms antidumping duties are a weak tool for protecting the domestic catfish industry. Using cumulative logit models, the third chapter identifies determinants of job satisfaction and subjective well-being of small scale fish farmers in Vietnam, and examines the role of earnings from fish production in generating their happiness. Relative income, not absolute income, from aquaculture raises their job satisfaction. Higher satisfaction is also associated with involvement in extension services, a larger relative pond surface and a higher expectation level on earnings from aquaculture. The role of income per capita in job satisfaction or happiness is not confirmed. Happiness of the farmers increases with cash earnings from fish farming and income from wild fish relative to total household income.