Identity Politics and Trade Policy

Economics of Identity

Gene M Grossman and Elhanan Helpman

The Review of Economic Studies, 2021, vol. 88, issue 3, 1101-1126

Abstract: We characterize trade policies that result from political competition when assessments of well-being include both material and psychosocial components. The material component reflects, as usual, satisfaction from consumption. Borrowing from social identity theory, we take the psychosocial component as combining the pride and self-esteem an individual draws from the status of groups with which she identifies and a dissonance cost she bears from identifying with those that are different from herself. In this framework, changes in social identification patterns that may result, for example, from increased income inequality or heightened class or ethnic tensions, lead to pronounced changes in trade policy. We analyse the nature of these policy changes.

Keywords: Social identity; Political economy; Tariff formation; Protectionism; Populism; F13; D78 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Identity Politics and Trade Policy (2019)
Working Paper: Identity Politics and Trade Policy (2018)
Working Paper: Identity Politics and Trade Policy (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:restud:v:88:y:2021:i:3:p:1101-1126.

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