“Fake” Tariff News: Is Corporate America Concerned with Trade Wars?

The effect a trade war would have on corporate America is a widely disputed hot topic. On one hand, the trade dispute may discourage abusive trade practices by foreign companies; on the other, it may hurt American exporters, raise costs for manufacturers, and interrupt companies’ supply chains. The authors shed some light on this question by examining the language of earnings call transcripts in the April–August 2018 period, the earliest...