The Smoot-Hawley Trade War

Kris James Mitchener, Kirsten Wandschneider and Kevin O'Rourke

No 28616, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We document the outbreak of a trade war after the U.S. adopted the Smoot-Hawley tariff in June 1930. U.S. trade partners initially protested the possible implementation of the sweeping tariff legislation, with many eventually choosing to retaliate by increasing their tariffs on imports from the United States. Using a new quarterly dataset on bilateral trade for 99 countries during the interwar period, we show that U.S. exports to countries that protested fell by between 15 and 22 percent, while U.S. exports to retaliators fell by 28-33 percent. Furthermore, using a second new dataset on U.S. exports at the product-level, we find that the most important U.S. exports to retaliating markets were particularly affected, suggesting a possible mechanism whereby the U.S. was targeted despite countries’ MFN obligations. The retaliators’ welfare gains from trade fell by roughly 8-17%.

JEL-codes: F13 F14 N70 N72 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-int
Note: DAE ITI
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published as Kris James Mitchener & Kevin Hjortshøj O'Rourke & Kirsten Wandschneider, 2022. "The Smoot-Hawley Trade War," The Economic Journal, vol 132(647), pages 2500-2533.

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Related works:
Journal Article: The Smoot-Hawley Trade War (2022)
Working Paper: The Smoot-Hawley Trade War (2021)
Working Paper: The Smoot-Hawley Trade War (2021)
Working Paper: The Smoot-Hawley Trade War (2021)
Working Paper: The Smoot-Hawley Trade War (2021)
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