Date

26/03/2025

Time

10:30-12:00

Venue:

E21B-G002

Topic

Fiscal and Trade Policy in the Trump Era

Presenter

Prof. Mark D. Robbins
Fudan Chair Professor, Fudan University
Emeritus Professor, University of Connecticut

Prof. Mark D. Robbins is Fudan Chair Professor at Institute for Global Public Policy, Fudan University, where he visits regularly to teach and conduct research. After earning his PhD in Public Administration Syracuse University Maxwell School, he has served on the faculty of the University of Georgia and the University of Connecticut. He is also Emeritus Professor at University of Connecticut School of Public Policy. Prof. Robbins has published extensively in the area of public budgeting and finance, focusing on the determinants of support for public spending and taxation, and also on government debt and budget management. He served the profession as a member of the board of directors of Public Financial Publications, Inc. (the publisher of the journal Public Budgeting and Finance), the Government Accounting Standards Board Advisory Committee, the Government Finance Officer’s Association’s Debt Policy Committee, the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs (NASPAA) Commission on Peer Review and Accreditation, Chair of the NASPAA Finance Committee, and as a research fellow for the Public Policy Institute of California.

Prof. Robbins has a particular interest in China and has made numerous trips to more than a dozen Chinese cities since his first guest lecture in Beijing in 2001.

Language

English

Abstract

In this presentation I gather together the salient facts about the American President’s fiscal and trade policies with particular attention to tariffs. First I look at where our expectations about tariffs come from and why tariffs act as consumption taxes. Next I review the history of tariffs and trade policy including the original round of Trump tariffs beginning in 2018, highlighting findings from several high quality studies of their effects. I will discuss American understanding and support for tariffs before looking at currently evolving tariff policy and how China and USA decoupling may impact economic growth in both societies. I conclude with a menu of policies responses to contemplate and examine as a new era of policy history unfolds.