U.S. Is Biggest Net Importer of Cuisines

American culture may dominate movies and music around the world, but it does not dominate restaurant cuisines, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research study.

University of Minnesota economist Joe Waldfogel uses TripAdvisor data on 148 restaurant cuisines and Euromonitor data on restaurant expenditures in at least the top 60 cities of 52 countries. After analyzing this voluminous data, Waldfogel's principal finding is that the U.S. is the world's largest net importer of cuisines, with a deficit of $130 billion in 2017, excluding fast food. When fast food is included, the deficit falls to $55 billion, but the U.S. remains the biggest net importer of cuisines. Italy and Japan are the largest net exporters of their cuisines, followed by Mexico, Turkey, Thailand, and France.

Source: National Bureau of Economic Research, Dining Out as Cultural Trade, NBER Working Paper 26020 ($5)