Trade Protectionism and Electoral Competition: An Empirical Investigation

27 Pages Posted: 8 Oct 2006

See all articles by Miaojie Yu

Miaojie Yu

Peking University - China Center for Economic Research (CCER)

Date Written: October 6, 2006

Abstract

Previous studies have recognized that campaign contributions and lobbies affect trade policy. However, whether or not trade policy affects electoral outcome is far less discussed. This paper thus introduces a theoretical framework to explain how trade platform could affect the vote pattern. Motivated by this, we then estimate such an effect using election data from the U.S. House of Representatives over the last two decades. Overall, we find statistically robust evidence that congressional district weighted tariffs have quantitatively important effects on the House election outcome.

Keywords: Tariffs, Electoral Competition, Campaign Contributions

JEL Classification: F13, D72

Suggested Citation

Yu, Miaojie, Trade Protectionism and Electoral Competition: An Empirical Investigation (October 6, 2006). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=935334 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.935334

Miaojie Yu (Contact Author)

Peking University - China Center for Economic Research (CCER) ( email )

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