No Help for the Heartland?

The paper presented in this Research Seminar studies the labor market impacts of the 2018-19 US import tariffs and other countries’ retaliatory tariffs. Import tariffs did not substantially increase US employment in exposed industries or local labor markets, while retaliatory tariffs induced modest employment losses. Despite the tariffs policy’s failure to bring back jobs to the US, the Republican party which implemented the policy experienced electoral gains in tariff-exposed locations.