Recently in class we have talked about subsidies and what they do for the home economy. It is stated that export subsidies are only paid on goods that are exported. This will have no effect on a small county, but will result in losses of efficiency and worsen the terms of trade in a large country such as ourselves.
I discovered a journal article written in 1999 by Paul Pecorino titled "Export Subsidies as a Revenue-Seeking Activity: Some Implications for the Evolution of Protection" Click to Read (This is a JSTOR article, you may need to log in to see it)
He discusses the output market and how "firms in the export industry costly overcome the free-rider problem lobbying for an optimal export subsidy". (Export Subsidies, 1999) This is relevant when discussing the optimal subsidy, which will have little if no effect on a small country.
He goes a little more in depth with the problem and talks about the lobbying problem. This is introducing the politics and special interest into the equation. That is really the driving force behind a government deciding to put an export subsidy on goods. The consumer will stay pay the same price as a foreign consumer would because we assume that the producers are acting logically. It would not make sense for them to charge consumers on the domestic end less than what they could get for it in the foreign market. This in turn would increase the price of that good due to the extra supply. All in all there is little evidence to support that an export subsidy would be good for the domestic economy and a tariff would be a better option, but still, not a very good choice.
Many problems can arise from export subsidies one of which being investment. Firms can invest in markets with subsidies when they normally wouldn't causing an imbalance in the market directly attributed to the subsidy. Also, there is no telling how long the subsidy will be in place. It is up to the ones making the decision and special interest groups to keep the subsidy going or nix it. The special interest groups would most likely rather keep it in place because it was intended to help them out to begin with and taking it away may change the landscape of business they are operating in.
I found it very interesting talk about export subsidies because initially I would just assume that it would be good for the economy by increase the money supply. However looking further into it you can see that the money has to come from the government and therefore the people living in the country and it doesn't improve the welfare in the home country.
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