This paper introduces the concept of a steepest ascent tariff reform for a small open economy. By construction, it is locally optimal in that it yields the highest gain in utility of any feasible tariff reform vector of the same length. Accordingly, it provides a convenient benchmark for the...

In this paper we examine the issue of optimal tariffs for a small economy that trades with a large economy. We define "small" and "large" in the sense that the world prices are determined solely by the large country, and, therefore, the small country faces exogenously given world prices. Within...