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The sources of protectionist drift in representative democracies

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  • Laussel, Didier
  • Riezman, Raymond

Abstract

We analyze a two country-two goods model of international trade in which citizens in each country differ by their specific factor endowments. The trade policy in each country is set by the politician who has been elected by the citizens in a previous stage. Due to a delegation effect citizens generally favor candidates who are more protectionist than they are. The (multiple) one candidate per country-equilibria exhibit a ''protectionist drift'' owing to this delegation effect and an abstention effect.
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  • Laussel, Didier & Riezman, Raymond, 2005. "The sources of protectionist drift in representative democracies," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(7), pages 1855-1876, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:49:y:2005:i:7:p:1855-1876
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    Cited by:

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    3. Grégoire Rota Graziosi, 2009. "On the Strategic Use of Representative Democracy in International Agreements," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 11(2), pages 281-296, April.
    4. Roelfsema, Hein, 2007. "Strategic delegation of environmental policy making," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 270-275, March.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations

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