The following University of California, Davis, faculty can address various effects of tariffs and other trade policies, including  supply-chain issues, affecting the U.S. economy, agriculture and consumers. Sources on other economic issues, such as gasoline prices, are linked at the bottom of this release.

The economy and foreign trade

Katheryn Russ, professor of economics and chair of that department in the College of Letters and Science, was interviewed frequently about post-pandemic supply chain issues.  She is a faculty research associate in the National Bureau of Economic Research International Trade and Investment Group, and she is non-resident senior fellow of the Peterson Institute.

She served as senior economist for international trade and finance at the White House Council of Economic Advisers in 2015-2016.

Since 2017, her work and comments about trade policy and the impact of tariffs and supply chain on consumers and firms have been covered in international print and broadcast media including National Public Radio, ABC News, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, The New York Times Upshot, The Christian Science Monitor, various Chinese publications, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Liberty Street Blog. Contact: knruss@ucdavis.edu

Christopher Meissner, professor of economics in the College of Letters and Science, is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research focuses on international financial crises, exchange rate policy, international trade and international finance often with a long-run perspective.  He has some recent work in the area of public health and economics. He is co-author of a study looking at the history of U.S. tariffs, finding that U.S. businesses were made weaker, not stronger. He said that research is relevant today. Read more here. Contact: cmmeissner@ucdavis.edu

Deborah Swenson is a professor of economics in the College of Letters and Science. She has expertise in international economics, public economics, foreign direct investment and offshoring particularly in regard to China. Swenson conducts research focusing on international trade, multinational firms, outsourcing and international taxation. Contact: deswenson@ucdavis.edu

Supply chain

Rachel Chen is an expert in operations research and supply chain management. She is a professor in the Graduate School of Management. Her work has been published in leading journals, including IIE Transactions, Management Science, Marketing Science, Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, Operations Research Letters and Production and Operations Management. Chen has presented her research widely in the U.S. and internationally.  Chen grew up in central China and moved to Shanghai to attend Tongji University and pursue a bachelor’s degree in computer science. Three years later, she obtained her master’s in management information systems from Fudan University. Contact: rachen@ucdavis.edu

East Asian Economies

Wing Thye Woo, professor of economics in the College of Letters and Science, has expertise in East Asian economies, particularly those of China, Indonesia and Malaysia. In addition to his academic appointment at UC Davis, he is president of the Jeffrey Cheah Institute on Southeast Asia in Kuala Lumpur; Chang Jiang Professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing; Distinguished Professor at Fudan University in Shanghai; director of the East Asia Program within the Earth Institute at Columbia University; and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. He was a consultant to China for the tax and exchange rate reforms that nation implemented in 1994; convener of the Asian Economic Panel (a group of about 40 economists who meet three times a year to discuss Asian economic issues); and managing editor of the Asian Economic Papers (MIT Press). He has extensive media experience in broadcast and print. Contact: wtwoo@ucdavis.edu

How tariffs affect agriculture

Daniel Sumner, the Frank H. Buck Jr. Distinguished Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, is the director of the University of California Agricultural Issues Center. His research and writing focus particularly on the consequences of farm and trade policy on agriculture and the economy. His work on agriculture and trade relates to NAFTA, the European Union and China. Prior to beginning his current position in January 1993, Sumner was the assistant secretary for economics at the United States Department of Agriculture. His research has an emphasis on agricultural trade in the Pacific Rim (especially Korea), dairy industry issues and rice policy. Sumner wrote a column about how the steel tariffs are affecting American agriculture recently in The Hill. Contact: dasumner@ucdavis.edu 

Colin Carter is distinguished professor in Agricultural and Resource Economics. His current research focuses on issues related to commodity markets and agricultural trade. He recently wrote about China’s retaliation against U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs by imposing its own tariffs on some agricultural goods from California, and the effects on agriculture. Along with scores of professional journal articles, chapters and reports, he has co-authored several books, the topics of which include China’s grain markets, futures markets and U.S. agricultural policy. Contact: cacarter@ucdavis.edu

Originally created in 2020, this expert list was updated Dec. 1, 2021.