Discussion Paper

Impacts of Tariffs on Rural Businesses: Insights from Our Business Surveys

Abstract: As a part of the Richmond Fed's March business surveys, we asked firms how tariff policies might affect their business. Additionally, we asked responding businesses to indicate their geographic footprint: urban, suburban, small town, and/or rural. We were particularly interested in understanding how rural-operating businesses expect to be impacted by tariff policies compared to their urban counterparts. In our analysis, we consider rural-only businesses to operate only in rural areas or small towns. We consider urban-only businesses to operate only in cities or suburban areas. We find that businesses operating only in rural areas were more likely to expect significant impacts from tariffs than businesses operating only in urban areas. However, rural-only businesses were less likely to expect negative impacts than businesses that operate in urban areas. Importantly, rural businesses were more likely to be manufacturers, and that sector is likely to face more impact from tariffs.

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond

Part of Series: Regional Matters

Publication Date: 2025-04-03