Political Limits to Globalization

Daron Acemoglu and Pierre Yared

No 15694, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Despite the major advances in information technology that have shaped the recent wave of globalization, openness to trade is still a political choice, and trade policy can change with shifts in domestic political equilibria. This paper suggests that a particular threat and a limiting factor to globalization and its future developments may be militarist sentiments that appear to be on the rise among many nations around the globe today. We proxy militarism by spending on the military and the size of the military, and document that over the past 20 years, countries experiencing greater increases in militarism according to these measures have had lower growth in trade. Focusing on bilateral trade flows, we also show that controlling flexibly for country trends, a pair of countries jointly experiencing greater increases in militarism has lower growth in bilateral trade.

JEL-codes: F01 F10 F52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-cdm, nep-dev, nep-int, nep-lam and nep-pol
Note: IFM ME POL
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (36)

Published as Daron Acemoglu & Pierre Yared, 2010. "Political Limits to Globalization," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 83-88, May.

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