Footnote:
Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments April 30, 2018 erstellt
Description:
The objective of this study is to estimate the extent of the benefits to U.S. consumers that may be attributable to access to imported consumer goods from China. Imported consumer goods can keep the levels and rates of increases of the prices of consumer goods in the U.S. low, thus benefitting U.S. consumers. The focus is on the effects of imports of apparel and non-oil consumer goods on their prices in the U.S. and consequently on the respective U.S. household consumption expenditures on these goods. It will be demonstrated empirically that Chinese imports into the United States have helped to keep the prices of consumer goods low in the U.S. since 1994. It is found that between 1994 and 2017, a one-percentage-point increase in the share of U.S. apparel imports from China would lower the annual rate of growth of the U.S. apparel price index by approximately 0.2 percentage point. Similarly, a one-percentage point increase in the share of U.S. non-oil imports (which include apparel imports) from China would lower the annual rate of growth of U.S. non-oil price index by approximately 1.0 percentage point. The level of the U.S. CPI in 2017 would have been 27 percent higher if the share of U.S. non-oil imports originated from China had remained at its 1994 level of 6.2 percent. The reduced price of non-oil consumer goods has resulted in an estimated average annual saving for U.S. consumers of US$623 billion between 1994 and 2016, approximately 12 percent of the average annual U.S. non-oil consumer expenditure during the same period