Putting Quantitative Models to the Test: An Application to the U.S.-China Trade War*

S-Tier
Journal: Quarterly Journal of Economics
Year: 2025
Volume: 140
Issue: 2
Pages: 1471-1524

Authors (3)

Rodrigo Adão (not in RePEc) Arnaud Costinot (Massachusetts Institute of Tec...) Dave Donaldson (not in RePEc)

Score contribution per author:

2.691 = (α=2.02 / 3 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

The primary motivation behind quantitative work in international trade and many other fields is to shed light on the economic consequences of policy changes and other shocks. To help assess and potentially strengthen the credibility of such quantitative predictions, we introduce an IV-based goodness-of-fit measure that provides the basis for testing causal predictions in arbitrary general equilibrium environments as well as for estimating the average misspecification in these predictions. As an illustration of how to use the measure in practice, we revisit the welfare consequences of the U.S.-China trade war predicted by Fajgelbaum et al. (2020).

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:oup:qjecon:v:140:y:2025:i:2:p:1471-1524
Journal Field
General
Author Count
3
Added to Database
2026-01-25