American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Policy Uncertainty, Trade, and Welfare: Theory and Evidence for China and the United States
American Economic Review
vol. 107,
no. 9, September 2017
(pp. 2731–83)
(Complimentary)
Abstract
We examine the impact of policy uncertainty on trade, prices, and real income through firm entry investments in general equilibrium. We estimate and quantify the impact of trade policy on China's export boom to the United States following its 2001 WTO accession. We find the accession reduced the US threat of a trade war, which can account for over one-third of that export growth in the period 2000-2005. Reduced policy uncertainty lowered US prices and increased its consumers' income by the equivalent of a 13-percentage-point permanent tariff decrease. These findings provide evidence of large effects of policy uncertainty on economic activity and the importance of agreements for reducing it.Citation
Handley, Kyle, and Nuno Limão. 2017. "Policy Uncertainty, Trade, and Welfare: Theory and Evidence for China and the United States." American Economic Review, 107 (9): 2731–83. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20141419Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
- F13 Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
- F14 Empirical Studies of Trade
- O19 International Linkages to Development; Role of International Organizations
- P33 Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions: International Trade, Finance, Investment, Relations, and Aid