Trade Effects of Customs Reform: Evidence from Albania
评估了阿尔巴尼亚大幅减少进口货物物理检查的改革，发现检查减少显著增加了进口，尤其是那些原本较少被观察的进口流，且关税收入随申报价值增长而增加，未发现逃税行为增加。
Abstract Despite enormous academic interest in international trade costs and keen policy interest in efforts to reduce them, little is known about the effects of trade facilitation measures. This study evaluates a significant Albanian reform that sharply reduced physical inspections of import shipments. An estimation strategy that isolates quasi-random variation in the allocation of shipments to physical inspections is used to show that reduced inspections significantly increase imports. Import flows that are observed least frequently see the largest trade responses to reduced inspections. The effect of inspections on imports is virtually independent of changes in clearance time and clearance time uncertainty. Tariff and other tax revenues collected at the border rise in direct proportion to growth in declared import value. There is no compelling evidence that reduced inspections increase evasive behavior, perhaps because most of Albania's imports are tariff-free.