11 November 2026 12:30 - 14:00

This event is both online and in person.

SAL 1.04, 1st Floor Conference Room, Sir Arthur Lewis Building, LSE, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PH

Online participants are welcome:
Please contact Lia Bergin (Communications and Events Assistant) l.bergin@lse.ac.uk to receive event updates and a link to the seminar online.

About this event

Multinational enterprises dominate international trade, yet much of the literature on optimal trade policy has overlooked their significance. We show that in 2018-2019, the Trump adminis tration prioritized tariffs on goods from China in industries with a higher share of related-party imports. Using Census data, we assess how arms-length and related-party import quantities and prices changed in response to the tariffs [disclosure pending - expected by May 2025]. Theo retically, we show that multinational production shapes the aggregate trade elasticity via the substitution of labor within multinational enterprises across different countries of production. When markets are competitive, and abstracting from entry costs to become a multinational enterprise, we obtain a neutrality result for optimal tariffs: unilaterally optimal second-best tariffs are uniform across sectors and countries, despite variation in multinational activity. In imperfectly competitive markets, however, governments have an incentive to set optimal tariffs that shift profits toward domestically owned multinationals. The ability of multinational enterprises to engage in transfer pricing to reduce the tariff burden also affects the optimal tariff level

Participants are expected to adhere to the CEP Events Code of Conduct.

Directions

This event will take place in SAL 1.04, 1st Floor Conference Room, Sir Arthur Lewis Building, LSE, 32 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3PH.

Online participants are welcome:
Please contact Lia Bergin (Communications and Events Assistant) l.bergin@lse.ac.uk to receive event updates and a link to the seminar online.

The building is labelled SAL on the LSE campus map. You can also find us on Google Maps. For further information, go to contact us.

Trade and Urban Seminars are part of the CEP's Trade programme and Urban programme.