Policymakers’ horizon and trade reforms: the protectionist effect of elections
This paper shows that electoral incentives deter politicians from supporting trade liber- alization. We focus on all major trade liberalization bills introduced since the early 1970s in the U.S. Congress, in which House and Senate members serve respectively two- and six-year terms and one third of s...
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| Format: | Article |
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Elsevier
2014
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/30483/ |
| _version_ | 1848793994121707520 |
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| author | Conconi, Paola Facchini, Giovanni Zanardi, Maurizio |
| author_facet | Conconi, Paola Facchini, Giovanni Zanardi, Maurizio |
| author_sort | Conconi, Paola |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This paper shows that electoral incentives deter politicians from supporting trade liber- alization. We focus on all major trade liberalization bills introduced since the early 1970s in the U.S. Congress, in which House and Senate members serve respectively two- and six-year terms and one third of senators face elections every two years. We show that senators are more likely to support trade liberalization than House representatives. How- ever, this result does not hold for the last generation of senators, who face elections at the same time as House members, suggesting that inter-cameral differences are driven by term length. Considering senators alone, we find that the last generation is less likely to support trade liberalization than the previous two. This result is pervasive and holds both when comparing the behavior of different senators voting on the same bill and that of individual senators voting on different bills. The protectionist effect of election proximity disappears for senators who are retiring or hold safe seats. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:09:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-30483 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:09:08Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-304832020-05-04T20:13:22Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/30483/ Policymakers’ horizon and trade reforms: the protectionist effect of elections Conconi, Paola Facchini, Giovanni Zanardi, Maurizio This paper shows that electoral incentives deter politicians from supporting trade liber- alization. We focus on all major trade liberalization bills introduced since the early 1970s in the U.S. Congress, in which House and Senate members serve respectively two- and six-year terms and one third of senators face elections every two years. We show that senators are more likely to support trade liberalization than House representatives. How- ever, this result does not hold for the last generation of senators, who face elections at the same time as House members, suggesting that inter-cameral differences are driven by term length. Considering senators alone, we find that the last generation is less likely to support trade liberalization than the previous two. This result is pervasive and holds both when comparing the behavior of different senators voting on the same bill and that of individual senators voting on different bills. The protectionist effect of election proximity disappears for senators who are retiring or hold safe seats. Elsevier 2014-09 Article PeerReviewed Conconi, Paola, Facchini, Giovanni and Zanardi, Maurizio (2014) Policymakers’ horizon and trade reforms: the protectionist effect of elections. Journal of International Economics, 94 (1). pp. 102-118. ISSN 0022-1996 Term length election proximity roll-call votes trade liberalization. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022199614000890 doi:10.1016/j.jinteco.2014.06.006 doi:10.1016/j.jinteco.2014.06.006 |
| spellingShingle | Term length election proximity roll-call votes trade liberalization. Conconi, Paola Facchini, Giovanni Zanardi, Maurizio Policymakers’ horizon and trade reforms: the protectionist effect of elections |
| title | Policymakers’ horizon and trade reforms: the protectionist effect of elections |
| title_full | Policymakers’ horizon and trade reforms: the protectionist effect of elections |
| title_fullStr | Policymakers’ horizon and trade reforms: the protectionist effect of elections |
| title_full_unstemmed | Policymakers’ horizon and trade reforms: the protectionist effect of elections |
| title_short | Policymakers’ horizon and trade reforms: the protectionist effect of elections |
| title_sort | policymakers’ horizon and trade reforms: the protectionist effect of elections |
| topic | Term length election proximity roll-call votes trade liberalization. |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/30483/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/30483/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/30483/ |