Buying Globalization: Consumer Orientation and Perceptions about Trade

Abstract

Individual attitudes toward trade are typically analyzed through trade's consequences on labor markets. Few studies directly consider the impact of trade on consumers, who are commonly assumed to benefit from liberalization. Trade protection, however, provides welfare gains for heavy consumers of domestic goods by ensuring the availability of domestically produced products and by dispersing the cost of maintaining inefficient sectors across all members of the economy. Variations in consumer preferences thus impact the perceived personal pocketbook effects of trade. By integrating theory from political economy and consumer psychology, this article provides a framework for understanding consumer interests toward trade liberalization. An analysis of U.S. public opinion lends support to the importance of consumer orientation in individual perceptions of trade. Future work examining the role of self-interest in trade attitude formation should carefully consider consumer tastes as well as labor markets and sociotropic concerns. Related Articles: Anderson, Bret, Brian S. Krueger, and Ping Xu. 2016. “Does Global Market Integration Weaken Opinion-Policy Congruence in the American States?” Politics & Policy 44 (4): 677-711. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12167. Gruber, Lloyd. 2013. “Trade, Growth, Poverty, and Politics: Toward a Unified Theory.” Politics & Policy 41 (5): 723-764. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12034. Jackson, Sarita. 2012. “Building Transnational Networks: Civil Society and the Politics of Trade in the Americas—By Marisa von Bülow.” Politics & Policy 40 (3): 539-541. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2012.00362.x. Related Media: US Consumer Product Safety Commission: https://www.cpsc.gov/. Fair Trade USA: https://www.fairtradecertified.org/.