NTM application to support "A Comparison of Approaches to Modelling Non-Tariff Barriers"

This application compares the impact of using alternative methods to apply the same shocks to goods NTMs in ASEAN. 

It includes additional code augmenting the GTAP model to enable modelling shocks to AXS and WTP.

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I.   SUMMARY
This version of GTAP uses a 7-commodity, 15-region aggregation to compare the impacts of alternative NTM modelling mechanisms: 
	-	Mechanism 1: AMS iceberg costs 
	-	Mechanism 2: AXS exporter costs 
	-	Mechanism 3: TMS import taxes
	-	Mechanism 4: TXS export taxes
	-	Mechanism 5: WTP willingness to pay

Since we are comparing several mechanisms that do not all apply the shock directly to trade costs, we undertake pre-simulations, using the econometric estimates of the changes in the quantity of trade flows, to calibrate the relevant ad valorem equivalent of the mechanism used to model the NTM. This applications includes the shock files with the pre-calibrated values of shocks relevant to each mechanism.


II.   EXPERIMENT FILES:

The simulations included in this application to replicate results from "A Comparison of Approaches to Modelling Non-Tariff Barriers" are:
	-	ams: Apply ASEAN goods shocks to ams mechanism
	-	axs: Apply ASEAN goods shocks to axs mechanism
	-	wtp: Apply ASEAN goods shocks to WTP mechanism

For the trade tax simulations, we first need to create updated GTAP databases that use Altertax to include the NTMs in the tariffs or export taxes:
	-	tmsalt: Altertax sim to create updated database with NTMs included in import taxes from which the 'tms' simulation can be run
	-	txsalt: Altertax sim to create updated database with NTMs included in export taxes from which the 'txs' simulation can be run
After running each of these simulations, create a new version 'using updated database from last simulation. Once the updated GTAP databases have been created for tms and txs, we run the following experiments using these:
	-	tms: Apply ASEAN goods shocks to tms mechanism - to be run on the post altertax tms database
	-	txs: Apply ASEAN goods shocks to axx mechanism - to be run on the post altertax txsdatabase


III.   REGIONS AND COMMODITIES

Regions modelled:
	Singapore* 	NewZealand
	Thailand*		Australia
	Malaysia*		India
	VietNam*		Japan
	Philippines*	Korea
	Indonesia*	China
	OtherASEAN	US
	ROW

Sectors modelled:			
	Plant Products*
	Animal Products*
	Wood Products*
	Textiles, Leather & Wearing Apparel*
	Machinery and Equipment*
	Other Manufactures*
	Services

* Sectors and regions for which NTMs are reduced


