The Economic Geography of Trade Preferences and Politics

• In Event: Do Voters Even Care about Trade? If so, How, and through What Channels?

Abstract

The origins of trade preferences remains a puzzle with competing camps pitting economic self-interest against sociotropism. I reconcile these competing views with an economic geography theory of trade politics. Whether voters think about trade in terms of their private exposure or how trade affects communities depends on the extent of geographic mobility. When voters cannot easily move between labor markets, trade exposure becomes a region-level event. Under this circumstance, how trade affects one’s pocketbook and how it affects one’s community become one and the same. I use geographically identified survey data to show that preferences reflect community level trade exposure when voters are trapped in their own geographies, but consider individual industry or occupation exposure when they are more mobile.

Author

• Thomas Michael Flaherty, University of California, San Diego