Importing Political Polarization? The Electoral Consequences of Rising Trade Exposure

David Autor, David Dorn, Gordon Hanson and Kaveh Majlesi

No 22637, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Has rising import competition contributed to the polarization of U.S. politics? Analyzing outcomes from the 2002 and 2010 congressional elections and the 2000, 2008, and 2016 presidential elections, we detect an ideological realignment that is centered in trade-exposed local labor markets and that commences prior to the divisive 2016 U.S. presidential election. Exploiting the exogenous component of rising trade with China and classifying legislator ideologies by congressional voting records, we find strong evidence that congressional districts exposed to larger increases in import penetration disproportionately removed moderate representatives from office in the 2000s. Trade-exposed districts with an initial majority white population or initially in Republican hands became substantially more likely to elect a conservative Republican, while trade-exposed districts with an initial majority-minority population or initially in Democratic hands also become more likely to elect a liberal Democrat. In presidential elections, counties with greater trade exposure shifted towards the Republican candidate. We interpret these results as supporting a political economy literature that connects adverse economic conditions to support for nativist or extreme politicians.

JEL-codes: D72 F14 H11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna and nep-int
Note: ITI LS POL
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (233)

Published as David Autor & David Dorn & Gordon Hanson & Kaveh Majlesi, 2020. "Importing Political Polarization? The Electoral Consequences of Rising Trade Exposure," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(10), pages 3139-3183, October.
Published as David Autor & David Dorn & Gordon Hanson & Kaveh Majlesi, 2020. "Importing Political Polarization? The Electoral Consequences of Rising Trade Exposure," American Economic Review, vol 110(10), pages 3139-3183.

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w22637.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Importing Political Polarization? The Electoral Consequences of Rising Trade Exposure (2020)
Working Paper: Importing Political Polarization? The Electoral Consequences of Rising Trade Exposure (2020)
Working Paper: Importing Political Polarization? The Electoral Consequences of Rising Trade Exposure (2016)
Working Paper: Importing Political Polarization? The Electoral Consequences of Rising Trade Exposure (2016)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:22637

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w22637

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().