Is free trade good for renewable resources? Brander and Taylor redux

Abstract

This paper generalizes the original Brander and Taylor model of open-access renewable resource use and trade to address three common critiques. First, I introduce heterogeneity across agents in harvesting productivity to smooth out the model's extreme specialization patterns while maintaining its Ricardian structure and tractability. Second, I move beyond the original assumption of open access by constructing a policy stringency function allowing for partial, first-best, and endogenous resource policy. Third, by exploiting the smooth substitution possibilities generated by agent heterogeneity and the insight that policy stringency functions are likely to vary across countries, I show how the model's core predictions can be evaluated using empirical methods related to those in growth econometrics.