Import demand elasticities are regularly used to compute trade restrictiveness indices, to transform estimated effects of trade policies into ad-valorem equivalents, or to judge on the prohibitive level of various tariff and non-tariff policy instruments. The fast rising number of negotiations of free trade agreements and the fact that non-tariff measures are at the core of these strongly motivates for an update of the import demand elasticity estimates provided by Kee, Nicita, and Olarreaga in 2008 which are based on trade data for the period 1988–2001. Following their GDP function approach, we present import demand elasticities for more than 150 countries and over 5000 products over the period 1996–2014. Countries exhibiting the highest average elasticities belong to the economically biggest countries in their respective regions, while countries with the lowest import demand elasticities are typically small island states. Import-weighted results suggest that especially countries rich in natural resources are facing an inelastic import demand, with the agri-food sector being more price-responsive than the manufacturing sector. Finally, import demand for intermediate goods seems to be more elastic than demand for products destined for final consumption.

进口需求弹性通常用于计算贸易限制指数，将贸易政策的估计效果转化为从价等值，或判断各种关税和非关税政策工具的禁止水平。自由贸易协定谈判数量的迅速增加以及非关税措施是这些谈判的核心，这强烈推动了 Kee、Nicita 和 Olarreaga 在 2008 年提供的基于贸易的进口需求弹性估计值的更新1988-2001 年期间的数据。按照他们的 GDP 函数方法，我们展示了 1996-2014 年期间 150 多个国家和 5000 多种产品的进口需求弹性。平均弹性最高的国家属于各自地区经济规模最大的国家，而进口需求弹性最低的国家通常是小岛国。进口加权结果表明，尤其是自然资源丰富的国家，进口需求缺乏弹性，农业食品部门比制造业对价格的反应更大。最后，中间产品的进口需求似乎比用于最终消费的产品的需求更具弹性。