Stretching the inelastic rubber
Subtitle: taxation, welfare and lobbies in Amazonia, 1870-1910
By: Felipe Tâmega Fernandes
Contributors: Harvard Business School
Series: Working paper / Harvard Business School -- 10-032; Working paper (Harvard Business School) -- 10-032.
Publisher: Harvard Business School
Published: 2009
Place of publication: [Boston]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 42
Description: This paper examines the effect of government intervention via taxation on domestic welfare. A case-study of Brazilian market power on rubber markets during the boom years of 1870-1910 shows that the government generated 1.3% of GDP through an export tax on rubber but that it could have generated 4.7% in total, had the government set the tariff at the optimal level. National, regional and local constraints prevented the government from maximizing regional welfare. In a context of lobbies, government budget maximization may have differed from regional welfare maximization.
Notes: "October 2009"--Publisher's website.

Includes bibliographical references.