The Ohio State University

US “Reciprocal Tariffs”: What Do They Mean?

By Ian Sheldon (sheldon.1@osu.edu) Currently the United States is on course to deviate from its World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments by unilaterally resetting all of its previously bound tariffs, President Trump referring to these as “reciprocal tariffs”.  However, the interpretation…

Could US Buyers Bear the Cost of Import Tariffs?

By Ian Sheldon (sheldon.1@osu.edu) To trade economists this seems a rather odd question, the answer to which would be: well of course tariffs impose costs on buyers (consumers and firms purchasing inputs), and the basic explanation can be found in…

Will Proposed US Tariffs Hurt US Farmers?

By Ian Sheldon (sheldon.1@osu.edu) In a previous post (Ian Sheldon, “Do US Buyers Bear the Cost of Import Tariffs?”), it was shown that based on analysis of the 2018-19 trade war with China, US buyers bore the cost of US…

Why are nature-based carbon offset prices so low?

By Brent Sohngen (sohngen.1@osu.edu)   For nearly 25 years, carbon offsets in agriculture and forestry have been the next big thing – a market with huge potential to increase revenue for farming with certain practices like conservation or no till,…