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The impact of ideas on trade policy: the origins of U.S. agricultural and manufacturing policies

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  • Goldstein, Judith

Abstract

Since the close of World War II, the United States has supported contradictory trade policies. In manufacturing, the United States has fostered a liberal trade regime, spurning government involvement in market transactions. In agriculture, it has sanctioned policies of import restrictions, export subsidies, and import fees. This variation is rooted in decisions that were made in the 1930s and institutionalized in the 1940s. In the wake of the Great Depression, policymakers concluded that state intervention helped agriculture and hurt industry. This article argues that the choice of government policy and its appropriateness to the economic problems faced by each sector reflect the accepted knowledge at the time. Neither liberalization nor subsidization was inevitable; both were economically viable options. However, central decision-makers made choices that were often based on inaccurate beliefs about the utility of different policy options.

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  • Goldstein, Judith, 1989. "The impact of ideas on trade policy: the origins of U.S. agricultural and manufacturing policies," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 43(1), pages 31-71, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:intorg:v:43:y:1989:i:01:p:31-71_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Gawande, Kishore & Hoekman, Bernard, 2006. "Lobbying and Agricultural Trade Policy in the United States," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 60(3), pages 527-561, July.
    2. Joseph A. Clougherty, 2005. "Antitrust holdup source, cross‐national institutional variation, and corporate political strategy implications for domestic mergers in a global context," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(8), pages 769-790, August.
    3. Eva Fernandez, 2011. "The cost of protection to grain farmers during the interwar years," Working Papers 11036, Economic History Society.
    4. Klimov, Blagoy, 2010. "Challenging path dependence? Ideational mapping of nationalism and the EU’s transformative power: The case of infrastructural politics in SEE," MPRA Paper 30985, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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