Online Australasian Seminar in International Economics (OASIS)
Deakin University, James Cook University, Melbourne University, Monash University, University of Auckland
Online Australasian Seminar in International Economics (OASIS)
Deakin University, James Cook University, Melbourne University, Monash University, University of Auckland
Welcome to the OASIS! OASIS is co-organized by A/Professor Reshad Ahsan, Professor Phillip McCalman, Dr. Krisztina Orbán, Dr. Cong S. Pham, Dr. Maria Ptashkina, A/Professor Laura Puzzello, A/Professor Asha Sundaram, Dr. Haiping Zhang, and Professor Sizhong Sun.
This is a seminar series on international economics-related topics for economists based in Australia and New Zealand and invited international speakers from around the world.
The format of the seminar is a 60-minute talk followed by a 15-minute Q&A. Unless otherwise specified, seminars will take place on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month. To convert the AEST or NZST time to your time zone, please click here.
Please email oasis.intlecon@gmail.com to sign up for the OASIS mailing list.
UPCOMING OASIS SEMINAR:
June 24, Time 10:00 AEST (12:00 NZST)
Speaker: Sang Min Lee (University of South Carolina)
Title: Tariff Front-Running
Abstract:
We examine US firms’ responses to future tariff increases and their macroeconomic implications. We build a novel firm-level import dataset and use it to study the 2018–2019 tariffs on steel, aluminum, and Chinese imports. We find that firms front-run tariffs by exploiting the roughly one-year lag between the initiation of the investigation into foreign trade practices and tariff implementation: Firms’ imports, inventories, and number of product-country partners begin to rise a year before the tariff increase. Moreover, firms increase imports not only from the targeted product-country but also from the same product in countries unaffected by the tariff, along both the intensive and extensive margins. We then develop a dynamic trade model in which forward-looking firms hold inventories and choose their set of trade partners. We find that tariff front-running puts downward pressure on aggregate prices and expands output prior to the tariff and that these anticipatory responses generate a smoother and longer transition to the new steady state. Last, we find that anticipatory responses lead to short- and long-run trade elasticities roughly twice as large as those in the unanticipated case.
PROGRAM - 2026 - Semester 1
June 24, Time 10:00 AEST (12:00 NZST)
Sang Min Lee (University of South Carolina)
Title: Tariff Front-Running
June 17, Time 10:00 AEST (12:00 NZST)
Title: Quality Incentives and Upgrading in Uganda’s Coffee Supply Chain
June 10, Time 9:00 AEST (11:00 NZST)
Title: Collective Learning in the Global Semiconductor Industry
May 13, Time 9:00 AEST (11:00 NZST)
Andrés Rodríguez-Clare (UC Berkeley)
Title: Carbon Taxes in the Global Economy: A Quantitative Analysis
April 22, Time 10:00 AEST (12:00 NZST)
Enze Xie (Zhejiang University)
Title: Washing Away the US: Tariff Evasion Under China’s Retaliatory Tariffs
April 8, Time 10:00 AEST (12:00 NZST)
Title: Exclusions for Sale? Tariff Exclusions in the US-China Trade War
March 11, Time 10:00 AEDT (12:00 NZDT)
Alina Mulyukova (Georg-August-University of Göttingen)
Title: Services Liberalization and Product Variety of Manufacturing Firms. Evidence from India
Feburary 25, Time 10:00 AEDT (12:00 NZDT)
Pablo Fajgelbaum (UCLA Economics)
Title: Strategic Trade Infrastructure: Understanding China’s Belt and Road Initiative
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