Trump tariffs and firm relief: winners and losers from the steel tariff exclusion request.

The Trump administration introduced 25% tariffs on steel imports in March 2018. To minimize the adverse effects of these tariffs on downstream US producers who import steel products, the administration simultaneously introduced exclusion requests for tariff exemptions. In this paper, we investigate whether companies from states where Trump won the 2016 presidential election were more likely to receive tariff exemptions than were firms that applied for exemptions in non-Trump states. Our estimation result suggests that firms located in Trump states were more likely to be granted exemptions. In addition, firms with lower sales-to-employment ratios, a signal of lower efficiency, were more likely to have exclusion requests approved if they were from states where Trump won the election. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]