Martin Anota (@manota.bsky.social)

Tariffs and technological hegemony The Trump administration’s sweeping tariff measures are intended to increase the competitiveness of US firms – especially in high-tech sectors – and reduce US trade deficits. This column discusses the impact of trade policies on innovation and technological hegemony. The analysis suggests that large and persistent changes in tariffs are likely to affect firms’ innovation decisions and the pattern of technological hegemony. However, countries should be wary of using trade policies to boost innovation by their domestic high-tech firms, since the strategy may easily backfire. https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/tariffs-and-technological-hegemony