Endogenous trade policy through majority voting: an empirical investigation

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Dutt, P; Mitra, D
• 署名单位: State University System of Florida; Florida International University; University of Alberta
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/S0022-1996(01)00162-3
• 发表日期: 2002
• 页码: 107-133
• 关键词: protection; openness; median voter; INEQUALITY

摘要

The median-voter approach to trade policy determination (within a Heckscher-Ohlin framework) as in Mayer [Am. Econ. Rev. 74(5) (1984) 9701 predicts that an increase in inequality, holding constant the economy's overall relative endowments, raises trade barriers in capital-abundant economies and lowers them in capital-scarce economies. We find support for this prediction using cross-country data on inequality, capital-abundance and diverse measures of protection. We perform certain robustness checks that include controlling for the effects of political rights and schooling as well as using alternative datasets on factor endowments, (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.