Who Pays for the Tariffs and Why? A Tale of Two Countries – Lei Li

Speaker

Lei Li, Ph.D. (University Göttingen)

Abstract

During the U.S.-China trade war, the U.S. punitive tariffs were almost entirely borne by U.S. importers. In contrast, only 68% of China’s retaliatory tariffs were paid by Chinese importers. The puzzling difference between the U.S. and China is mainly driven by their different import structures and product heterogeneity in tariff pass-through. China mainly imported products with lower tariff pass-through from the U.S., such as agricultural products and aircraft, while the U.S. primarily imported products with higher tariff pass-through from China, such as electronics. Furthermore, we decompose the product-level tariff pass-through and show that a higher ratio of import demand elasticity over export supply elasticity leads to lower tariff pass-through under perfect competition.

Authors

Chaonan Feng (Beihang University (BUAA)) – Liyan Han (Beihang University (BUAA) - School of Economic and Management Science) – Lei Li (University Göttingen)

Room

Virtually via Zoom – if interested, please send an Email to kcg-office@ifw-kiel.de to receive the Seminar-Link or to register for participation in Kiel.

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