Speaker: 王子男 (Zinan Wang)

Title: Protectionism and Inequality

Schedule: April 12, Wed 1:30-3:00 PM

Location: 诚明楼（Chengming Hall） RM 315

 

Introduction: 王子男，天津大学马寅初经济学院助理教授，博士毕业于美国华盛顿大学。研究领域为宏观经济学，劳动经济学，国际经济学等。已有研究发表于Open Economies Review。

Abstract: This paper studies the distributional outcomes of protectionism. First, we investigate the short-run distributional effects on workers with different skill levels by estimating structural vector autoregressions (VARs) using high-frequency measures of temporary trade barriers for the United States. We then estimate a panel VAR for a sample of thirty-six countries using the applied tariff rates. Across our empirical exercises, we find robust evidence that protectionism reduces the skill premium but increases the employment ratio between high-skilled and low-skilled workers. To rationalize these findings, we build a two-country dynamic general equilibrium model featuring asymmetric search-and-matching (SAM) frictions, capital-skill complementarity (CSC) in production and producer dynamics, which successfully replicates the VAR evidence. Our counterfactual analysis highlights the interaction between asymmetric SAM and CSC in qualitatively shaping the distributional patterns of protectionism, while producer dynamics magnify these effects quantitatively.