TY  - JOUR
AU  - Dutt,Pushan
AU  - Mitra,Devashish
TI  - Political Ideology and Endogenous Trade Policy: An Empirical Investigation
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 9239
PY  - 2002
Y2  - September 2002
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9239
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9239.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Pushan Dutt
INSEAD
1 Ayer Rajah Avenue
Singapore 138676
Fax: 65-6799-5499
E-Mail: Pushan.Dutt@insead.edu

Devashish Mitra
Department of Economics
The Maxwell School of Citizenship and
Public Affairs
133, Eggers Hall, Syracuse University
Syracuse, NY  13244
Tel: 315/443-6143
Fax: 315/443-3717
E-Mail: dmitra@maxwell.syr.edu
AB  - In this paper, we empirically investigate how government ideology affects trade policy.  The prediction of a partisan, ideology-based model (within a two-sector, two-factor Heckscher-Ohlin framework) is that left-wing governments will adopt more protectionist trade policies in capital rich countries, but adopt more pro-trade policies in labor rich economies than right-wing ones. The data strongly support this prediction in a very robust fashion. There is some evidence, that this relationship may hold better in democracies than in dictatorships though the magnitude of the partisan effect seems stronger in dictatorships.
ER  -