Tariffs Passing Through Retailers: Do Tariffs Actually Protect Domestic Manufacturers?

Matthew Cole and Carsten Eckel

No 1404, Working Papers from Florida International University, Department of Economics

Abstract: Historically, tari?s have been an attractive policy tool to protect domestic industries.The bene?ts of such a policy are based on theoretical models that assume foreign manufacturers sell directly to consumers. However, recent empirical evidence suggests that wholesalers and retailers play an active role in international trade. We present a model of retailers that illustrates how accounting for these strategic intermediaries can actually make some domestic manufacturers worse off in response to an increased tariff. Moreover, any production gains that occur are biased towards higher cost domestic manufacturers. This result is not driven by the cannibalization effect of the multi-product ?rm literature rather it is the fact that retailers compete over the marginal consumer (the extensive margin).

Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2014-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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https://economics.fiu.edu/research/pdfs/2014_working_papers/1404.pdf First version, 2014 (application/pdf)

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Working Paper: Tariffs Passing Through Retailers: Do Tariffs Actually Protect Domestic Manufacturers? (2014)
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