Plant-level responses to antidumping duties: Evidence from U.S. manufacturers

This paper describes the effects of a temporary increase in tariffs on the performance and behavior of U.S. manufacturers. Using a dataset that includes the full population of U.S. manufacturing plants, I show that an apparent positive correlation between antidumping duties and traditional revenue productivity is likely misleading. For the subset of plants reporting quantity-based output data, increases in prices and markups artificially inflate the effect of antidumping duties on revenue productivity, while physical productivity actually falls. Moreover, antidumping duties allow low-productivity plants to continue producing protected products, slowing the reallocation of resources from less productive to more productive uses. ► The effects of temporary tariffs on U.S. manufacturers. ► A correlation between antidumping duties and revenue productivity is misleading. ► Higher prices inflate the effect of antidumping duties on revenue productivity. ► Physical productivity actually falls. ► Antidumping duties slow the reallocation of resources.