The scientific tariff: from origins to the travails of F. W. Taussig

Rebeca Gomez Betancourt and Stephen Meardon

The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2025, vol. 32, issue 4, 596-619

Abstract: The idea of a scientific tariff took root in the US after the Civil War. Generally, the idea was that tariffs could best be made by executive action under advisement of appointed experts; specifically, tariffs should counterbalance unequal costs of production between foreign and domestic producers. Economist Frank W. Taussig campaigned publicly for the establishment of the US Tariff Commission as a council of experts. Later, beginning in the 1920s, he was dismayed when it became a vehicle for implementing the scientific tariff. This article tells the history of the scientific tariff with particular attention to Taussig's ambivalence.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/09672567.2025.2530392

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