Economics News

According to Mary Lovely, professor of economics, most of the tariffs that have been imposed have hit U.S. companies, not the Chinese.

"The first few rounds of tariffs hit supply chains really hard," says Mary Lovely, professor of economics. Now, the Trump administration "has begun to hit things clearly not processed in the U.S.—consumer goods—and this is going to get people’s attention."

"Trade policy has very little direct impact on the overall trade deficit in the longer run," said Mary Lovely, professor of economics.

Gary Engelhardt, professor of economics, and his co-authors found that early Social Security claiming leads to a significant increase in the number of retirees living in poverty.

"The unemployment rate has been low for some months now (relative to the recent past), but there has not been noticeable pressure on wages," says Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, professor of economics.

The fellowship is made possible by generous gifts to the Astrid Merget Fund honoring two-time alumna and former associate dean of the Maxwell School Astrid Merget ’68 M.P.A./’73 Ph.D. (SSc).

"What this deal really is signaling is that this administration is going to go forward with a 25% tariff on autos," says Mary Lovely, professor of economics. "That's going to greatly upset our partners in the EU, in Japan."

Professor of Economics Mary Lovely says negotiators should seek specific policy changes that will address the reason for these tariffs in the first place—U.S. allegations that China treats American firms unfairly with respect to their technology and intellectual property.

"The companies that use steel, like aluminum can manufacturers, or companies that make steel vats for pharmaceuticals or the dairy industry, they're going to be hurt by this," says Mary Lovely, professor of economics.

"If jobs and wealth are the metric for 'winning the trade war,' China, not America, will emerge the victor," says Mary Lovely, professor of economics.

"The Chinese are not going to be buying our soybeans, so almost by musical chairs our soybeans are going to Europe,” Mary Lovely, professor of economics, says about the EU's response to China's tariffs on American soybeans. 

Mary Lovely, professor of economics, says that after two rounds of retaliatory tariffs by China, U.S. ham and various other pork products now face massive tariffs—between 62 and 70 percent. "In recent weeks, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has reported zero weekly export sales of pork to China," she says. "So our exports to the country have pretty much collapsed."

A study co-authored by Stuart Rosenthal, "The vertical city: Rent gradients, spatial structure, and agglomeration economies," was published in the Journal of Urban Economics and is featured in the CityLab article, "Cities and the Vertical Economy."

Mary Lovely, professor of economics, explains why lower-income consumers, who tend to buy more goods from countries such as China, might end up feeling squeezed more than their higher-income counterparts.

"The biggest price hikes may be seen among these lower-priced products, and the effect of that will hit people toward the lower end of the income distribution more," says Professor of Economics Mary Lovely.