How Deep Is Your Love (For Globalization)? Survey Experiment Evidence from Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador

• In Event: Globalization and Structural Reform Impact on the Economies

Abstract

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Latin American support for economic liberalization was a foregone conclusion: surveys showed high support for free trade and foreign investment, and many Latin American governments were deeply committed to these policies. However, the rise of the left, coupled with aggressive reversals of liberalization, make revisiting the topic timely. This study draws on two strands of survey research, framing and deliberation, to probe support for liberalization—specifically, free trade, globalization, and foreign direct investment—experimentally in Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador. Most surveys use a positive "market liberal" frame when posing questions about liberalization. I hypothesize that this framing skews support upward. Studies on how information and deliberation affect policy preferences show that 1) respondents’ preferences often differ when offered the chance to reflect on them and 2) deliberation often weakens of respondents’ preferences, introducing uncertainty.

"The Americas and the World" survey conducted 13 experiments in Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador designed to stimulate thought about liberalization. Half the sample was asked a question about liberalization "straight" (the control group) and the other half had questions prefaced with by some advantages and disadvantages of liberalization (the treatment group). I hypothesize, and find, that average support for liberalization is lower, and the percentage of "don’t knows," higher, for the experimental group than the control group. I also conduct ancillary analysis to ensure these differences are attributable to thought rather than an artifact of question phrasing. The effects of thought are greater for older, more educated respondents.

Author

• David B Crow, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas