Mass Politics of Trade Cooperation

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

The ongoing U.S.-China trade war and the prevailing anti-trade backlash since the Global Financial Crisis prompt some of the enduring questions in the international political economy scholarship about the microfoundations of trade policy preferences among individuals and groups in the society. How do these developments affect citizens’ trade policy preferences? Can standard political economy theories be used to explain individual attitudes towards international trade? What is the role played by information and other actors such as firms? And, ultimately, what are their implications on international relations? This panel spans four diverse papers that re-examine these questions in greater depth, using original data and novel research designs.

First, revisiting the conventional wisdom that individuals’ trade preferences reflect their economic interests as represented by their position in the global economy, Kertzer et al. study how US citizens’ trade preferences are shaped by the types of trade news they are exposed to in a natural setting. Exploiting panel survey and web tracking data, they find that the kind of trade news Americans are exposed to in the real world has a significant effect on their trade preferences. However, trade news do not magnify the effects of economic interests, but rather seem to affect trade preferences through sociotropic pathways. Second, Prather and Shi examine how interstate rivalry influence individuals’ attitude towards globalization. By means of a survey experiment with a nationally representative U.S. sample, their study assesses how exposing citizens to primes about the U.S., as well as China’s economic, military and technological power affects their support for cooperation. They find that Democrats reduce their support for economic cooperation in response to the rivalry prime; whilst Republicans' preferences remain relatively entrenched. Interestingly, in a replication study conducted nine months later, democrats support for economic cooperation is no longer reduced by interstate rivalry. Third, Nguyen et al. also examine how changes in the global order influence individuals’ attitudes towards international trade. Using survey experiments with nationally representative samples from China and the U.S., their study assesses how exposing citizens to information about their countries' economic and military power toward another country affect their support for global economic cooperation. The authors find that citizens from declining powers are significantly less likely to support global economic cooperation, while their counterparts from a rising power show greater support for international trade. Fourth, exploring the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) by firms, the study by Kerner et al. tests how CSR practices affect individuals’ attitude toward offshoring. Using an online survey experiment, the authors evaluate under which conditions CSR initiatives can help reduce consumer reluctance to buy an imported good. First results show that consumers pay close attention to who is being helped by the firms’ CSR initiative.

Sub Unit

• Division 16: International Political Economy

Chair

• Erik Gartzke UCSD

Discussants

• Yeling Tan University of Oregon

• Erik Gartzke UCSD

Individual Presentations

• Interstate Rivalry and Public Support for Globalization - Lauren Prather, University of California, San Diego; Weiyi Shi, University of California, San Diego

• Power Transitions and Public Support for Global Cooperation - Quynh Nguyen, Australian National University; Thomas Sattler, University of Geneva; Tanja Schweinberger, University of Geneva

• Does the Geography of Corporate Social Responsibility Matter to Consumers? - Brian Kelleher Richter, University of Texas at Austin - McCombs School of Business; Andrew Kerner, Michigan State University; Jane Lawrence Sumner, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

• Trade Attitudes in the Wild - Joshua D. Kertzer, Harvard University; Pablo Barbera, University of Southern California; Andy Guess, Princeton University; Simon Munzert, Humboldt University of Berlin; JungHwan Yang, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Andi Cam Zhou, Harvard University