The Social Construction of Policy Reform: Economists and Trade Liberalization Around the World

International Interactions 38, 5 (2012): 670-702

39 Pages Posted: 4 Mar 2011 Last revised: 27 Aug 2013

See all articles by Stephen J. Weymouth

Stephen J. Weymouth

Georgetown University - Department of Strategy/Economics/Ethics/Public Policy

J. Muir Macpherson

Georgetown University, Robert E McDonough School of Business

Date Written: August 29, 2011

Abstract

Many developing countries liberalized trade policies over the past three decades. We argue that the global spread of ideas contributes to trade liberalization. Building on insights from a rich case-based literature, we suggest an explicit mechanism of trade policy diffusion: U.S.-trained Ph.D. economists, who share a common belief in the benefits of free trade, and who operate with varying degrees of political influence around the world. We offer the first cross-national test of the impact of economists on trade liberalization using a unique dataset recording the country of residence of all 6,493 foreign-based, U.S.-trained American Economic Association (AEA) members over the period 1981-1997. Specifically, we measure the influence of economists on the timing and extent of trade liberalization. First, we endogenize the date of trade liberalization using hazard and probit models. Controlling for alternative diffusion mechanisms and other confounding variables, our results suggest that economists significantly speed up the reform process. Second, we find that countries with greater numbers of economists are more open to trade at the end of the period. All of our results are robust to an instrumental variables strategy that employs the number of Fulbright grants allocated by the United States as an instrument for the number of U.S.-trained economists.

Keywords: Diffusion, Constructivism, International Trade, Political Economy

Suggested Citation

Weymouth, Stephen J. and Macpherson, J. Muir, The Social Construction of Policy Reform: Economists and Trade Liberalization Around the World (August 29, 2011). International Interactions 38, 5 (2012): 670-702, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1774874 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1774874

Stephen J. Weymouth (Contact Author)

Georgetown University - Department of Strategy/Economics/Ethics/Public Policy ( email )

Washington, DC 20057
United States

HOME PAGE: http://faculty.msb.edu/sw439/

J. Muir Macpherson

Georgetown University, Robert E McDonough School of Business ( email )

Washington, DC 20057
United States

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