Time: 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM, Monday, October 14

Venue: WDR 1003

Speaker:

Dr. Paolo Epifani

Professor of International Economics at the University of Nottingham

Head of School of Economics at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China

Host:

Xin Jin

Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics at Duke Kunshan University

Speaker’s bio:

I show that, in a general-equilibrium trade model significantly more general than those typically used to study the delocation and welfare effects of trade policy, non-tariff barriers (and import protection more generally) harm both consumers and producers under balanced trade. Why is then protectionism so widespread around the world? To address this puzzle, I allow for endogenous trade balances in an otherwise standard setting, and I find that protectionism leads to large benefits for domestic producers when it also induces a trade surplus. My theory and quantitative analysis suggest that protectionism is more likely to be observed when politically motivated governments can make a mercantilist use of it. A conclusion in line with the evidence showing that more protectionist countries tend to run larger trade surpluses on average.

Abstract:

Paolo Epifani is a Professor of International Economics at the University of Nottingham (UK & China). He served as the Head of the Nottingham Ningbo School of Economics between 2014 and 2017.  Previously, he served as Associate Professor of Economics at Bocconi University Milan (2006-2014) and as Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Parma (2001-2006). He received his BA and M.Sc. in Economics at Bocconi University, and his Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Ancona. He does research on the theory and empirics of international trade; some of his research is published in leading economic journals, such as the Review of Economic Studies, the Review of Economics and Statistics, The Economic Journal (3 articles), the Journal of International Economics (3 articles), etc.