TY  - JOUR
AU  - Helpman,Elhanan
TI  - Politics and Trade Policy
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 5309
PY  - 1995
Y2  - October 1995
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5309
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w5309.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Elhanan Helpman
Department of Economics
Harvard University
1875 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617-495-4690
Fax: 617-495-7730
E-Mail: ehelpman@harvard.edu
AB  - First I describe a number of political economy approaches that have been developed to explain trade policies.  All approaches are presented in a unified framework that helps to see the key differences among them.  These comparisons revolve around tariff formulas that are predicted by political equilibria.  A typical formula explains cross- sectoral variations in rates of protection as well as differences in average rates of protection across countries.  Second, I review a set of results that emerge from a new approach to the interaction of international economic relations with domestic politics.  Importantly, there are two-way interactions in such systems.  They link the formation of trade policies in the international arena with the activities of domestic special interest groups.  The use of a framework of this sort is essential for a proper analysis of a host of important problems, such as negotiations about tariff levels or the formation of free trade areas.  Recent studies have developed suitable tools for this purpose.
ER  -