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Tariff Incidence in America's Gilded Age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 September 2007

Douglas A. Irwin
Douglas A. Irwin
Affiliation:
Professor, Department of Economics, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755. E-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

In the late nineteenth century, the United States imposed high tariffs to protect domestic manufacturers from foreign competition. This article examines the magnitude of protection given to import-competing producers and the costs imposed on export-oriented producers by focusing on changes in the domestic prices of traded goods relative to nontraded goods. The results suggest that the 30 percent average import tariff gave about a 17 percent implicit subsidy to import-competing producers and effectively taxed exporters at about 10 percent. Tariffs redistributed large amounts of income (about 8 percent of GDP), but the effect on consumers was roughly neutral.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 67 , Issue 3 , September 2007 , pp. 582 - 607
Copyright
© 2007 The Economic History Association

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