Consumer Credit and the Incidence of Tariffs: Evidence from the Auto Industry
研究发现特朗普政府的金属关税导致汽车专属金融公司提高贷款利率，低收入借款人和竞争少的地区受影响更大，表明关税不仅影响商品价格，还会影响融资条件。
Captive finance subsidiaries create a channel for trade policy to affect consumer credit. Examining the impact of the Trump administration’s metal tariffs on captive automobile lenders, we find that consumers received higher interest rates from captive lenders after the tariffs relative to unaffected noncaptive lenders. Further, we document a disparate impact on low-income borrowers and in areas with less lending competition. Our results suggest that tariffs may impact not only the price of goods but also the financing terms of purchases. Thus, focusing solely on directly affected product prices may underestimate tariff pass-through significantly.