Matilde Bombardini

Aidan Wang, Ming-Yen Ho, and Ziyi Liu provided exceptional research assistance. We thank Judd Boomhower, Stefano Gagliarducci, Bard Harstad, Kelsey Jack, Torsten Persson, Andrea Prat, Mounu Prem, Guido Tabellini, Silvia Vannutelli, Reed Walker, Christopher Warshaw, seminar and conference participants at Columbia, BFI-IOG meeting Summer 2024, Bocconi, CEMFI, EIEF, Stanford, and the NBER Summer Institute for comments and suggestions.

Skip to main content Trebbi acknowledges partial support for this article from the Smith Richardson Foundation grant #2022-2935. Jonathan Old and Amol Singh provided excellent research assistance and comments. We also thank Logan Emery and Mara Faccio for providing additional data and help to facilitate the replication of their results. Chapter prepared for the Handbook of Political Economy, Daron Acemoglu and Jim Robinson, Editors.

‘Buy national’ provisions serve as non-tariff barriers to trade and are often defended as tools for job creation and industrial policy. This column examines the costs and benefits of current and anticipated future provisions under the Buy American Act of 1933, which discourages federal agencies from purchasing ‘foreign’ goods. Forged during the Great Depression, the Act continues to guide federal procurement in the US, and has been revised under both Democratic and Republican administrations.