The political economy of trade and migration:Evidence from the U.S. Congress

Conconi, Paola and Facchini, Giovanni and Steinhardt, Max and Zanardi, Maurizio (2020) The political economy of trade and migration:Evidence from the U.S. Congress. Economics & Politics, 32 (2). pp. 250-278. ISSN 1468-0343

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Abstract

We compare the drivers of U.S. congressmen's votes on trade and migration reforms since the 1970's. Standard trade theory suggests that trade reforms that lower barriers to goods from less skilled-labor abundant countries and migration reforms that lower barriers to low-skilled migrants should have similar distributional effects, hurting low-skilled U.S. workers while benefiting high-skilled workers. In line with this prediction, we find that House members representing more skilled-labor abundant districts are more likely to support trade and migration reforms that benefit high-skilled workers. Still, important differences exist: Democrats are less supportive of trade reforms than Republicans, while the opposite is true for migration reforms; welfare state considerations and network effects shape votes on migration, but not on trade.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Economics & Politics
Additional Information:
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article:Conconi, P, Facchini, G, Steinhardt, MF, Zanardi, M. The political economy of trade and migration: Evidence from the U.S. Congress. Econ Polit. 2020; 32: 250– 278. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecpo.12149 which has been published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ecpo.12149 This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2000/2002
Subjects:
?? TRADE REFORMSIMMIGRATION REFORMSROLL-CALL VOTESECONOMICS AND ECONOMETRICSF1F22 ??
ID Code:
136786
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
30 Sep 2019 08:15
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
29 Sep 2023 01:37