Export Subsidies Versus Export Quotas With Incompletely Informed Policy Makers

This paper analyses export subsidies (price incentives) and export quotas (quantity controls) in the Brander-Spencer (1985) model when policy makers have limited information on demand and cost structures. We examine necessary or sufficient information for policy makers to determine welfare-enhancing policies. It is crucial that they know the elasticity value of the slope of the inverse demand curve and the market share. It is also shown that for policy makers, export quotas are superior to export subsidies under certain conditions.