TY  - JOUR
AU  - Mayda,Anna Maria
AU  - Rodrik,Dani
TI  - Why Are Some People (and Countries) More Protectionist Than Others?
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8461
PY  - 2001
Y2  - September 2001
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8461
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8461.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Anna Maria Mayda
Dept. of Economics, ICC 552
Georgetown University
37th and O Streets, NW
Washington, DC 20057
Tel: 202 687 6712
E-Mail: amm223@georgetown.edu

Dani Rodrik
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617/495-9454
Fax: 617/496-5747
E-Mail: dani_rodrik@harvard.edu
AB  - We analyze a rich cross-country data set that contains information on attitudes toward trade as well as a broad range of socio-demographic and other indicators. We find that pro-trade preferences are significantly and robustly correlated with an individual's level of human capital, in the manner predicted by the factor endowments model. Preferences over trade are also correlated with the trade exposure of the sector in which an individual is employed: individuals in non-traded sectors tend to be the most pro-trade, while individuals in sectors with a revealed comparative disadvantage are the most protectionist. Third, an individual's relative economic status, measured in terms of either relative income within each country or self-expressed social status, has a very strong positive association with pro-trade attitudes. Finally, non-economic determinants, in the form of values, identities, and attachments, play an important role in explaining the variation in preferences over trade. High degrees of neighborhood attachment and nationalism/patriotism are associated with protectionist tendencies, while cosmopolitanism is correlated with pro-trade attitudes. Our framework does a reasonable job of explaining differences across individuals and a fairly good job of explaining differences across countries.
ER  -