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Foreign Lobbies and US Trade Policy

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Author Info
Kishore Gawande
Pravin Krishna
Michael J. Robbins

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Abstract

In popular discussion much has been made recently of the susceptibility of government policies to lobbying by foreigners. The general presumption has also been that such interactions have a deleterious effect on the home economy. However, it can be argued that, in a trade policy context, bending policy in a direction that would suit foreigners may not in fact be harmful: If the policy outcome absent any lobbying by foreigners is characterized by welfare-reducing trade barriers, lobbying by foreigners may result in reductions in such barriers and raise consumer surplus (and possibly improve welfare). Using a new data set on foreign political activity in the US, this paper investigates the relationship between trade protection and lobbying activity empirically. The approach taken in this paper is primarily a structural one. To model the role of foreign and domestic lobbies in determining trade policy, we develop first a theoretical framework building on the well-known work of Grossman and Helpman (1994); the econometric work that follows is very closely linked to the theory. Our analysis of the data suggests that foreign lobbying activity has significant impact on trade policy - and in the predicted direction: Tariffs and non-tariff barriers (NTBs) are both found to be negatively related with foreign lobbying activity. We consider also extended specifications in which we include a large number of additional explanatory variables that have been suggested in the literature as determinants of trade policy (but that emerge from outside of the theoretical structure described above) and confirm the robustness of our findings in this setting.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 10205.

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Date of creation: Jan 2004
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:10205

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Models of Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
D78 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Positive Analysis of Policy-Making and Implementation

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    Other versions:
  2. Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg & Giovanni Maggi, 1999. "Protection for Sale: An Empirical Investigation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(5), pages 1135-1155, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Krishna, Kala, 1989. "Trade restrictions as facilitating practices," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(3-4), pages 251-270, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Mayer, Wolfgang, 1984. "Endogenous Tariff Formation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 74(5), pages 970-85, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Dutt, Pushan & Mitra, Devashish, 2002. "Endogenous trade policy through majority voting: an empirical investigation," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 107-133, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Becker, Gary S, 1983. "A Theory of Competition among Pressure Groups for Political Influence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 98(3), pages 371-400, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Kishore Gawande, 1998. "Comparing Theories Of Endogenous Protection: Bayesian Comparison Of Tobit Models Using Gibbs Sampling Output," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 80(1), pages 128-140, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  13. Devashish Mitra & Dimitrios D. Thomakos & Mehmet A. Ulubaşoglu, 2002. ""Protection For Sale" In A Developing Country: Democracy Vs. Dictatorship," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(3), pages 497-508, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Joan Canton, 2009. "Environmentalists' Behaviour and Environmental Policies policies," Working Papers 2009.76, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei. [Downloadable!]
  2. Michele Ruta, 2003. "The allocation of competencies in an international union: a positive analysis," Working Paper Series 220, European Central Bank. [Downloadable!]
  3. Masahiro Endoh, 2005. "Cross-Border Political Donations and Pareto-Efficient Tariffs," Working Papers 915, Economic Growth Center, Yale University. [Downloadable!]
  4. Pol Antràs & Gerard Padró i Miquel, 2008. "Foreign Influence and Welfare," NBER Working Papers 14129, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  5. Subhayu Bandyopadhyay & Sajal Lahiri & Howard J. Wall, 2009. "Cross-border lobbying in preferential trading agreements: implications for external tariffs," Working Papers 2009-041, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. [Downloadable!]
  6. Kee, Hiau Looi & Olarreaga, Marcelo & Silva, Peri, 2004. "Market access for sale : Latin America's lobbying for U.S. tariff preferences," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3198, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  7. Aidt, T.S. & Hwang, U., 2008. "One Cheer for Foreign Lobbying," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 0860, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge. [Downloadable!]
  8. Giovanni Facchini & Johannes Van Biesebroeck & Gerald Willmann, 2005. "Protection for Sale with Imperfect Rent Capturing," NBER Working Papers 11269, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. kishore gawande & pravin krishna, 2005. "The Political Economy of Trade Policy: Empirical Approaches," International Trade 0503003, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
  10. Gawande, Kishore & Maloney, William & Montes Rojas, Gabriel V., 2009. "Foreign informational lobbying can enhance tourism : evidence from the Caribbean," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4834, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  11. Susumu Imai & Hajime Katayama & Kala Krishna, 2006. "Protection for Sale or Surge Protection?," Working Papers 1114, Queen's University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  12. Guriev, Sergei & Yakovlev, Evgeny & Zhuravskaya, Ekaterina, 2008. "Interest Group Politics in a Federation," CEPR Discussion Papers 6671, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Dutt, Pushan & Mitra, Devashish, 2009. "Explaining Agricultural Distortion Patterns : The Roles of Ideology, Inequality, Lobbying and Public Finance," Agricultural Distortions Working Paper 50299, World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  14. Susumu Imai & Hajime Katayama & Kala Krishna, 2007. "Is Protection Really for Sale? A Survey and Directions for Future Research," Working Papers 1151, Queen's University, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  15. Subhayu Bandyopadhyay & Sajal Lahiri & Suryadipta Roy, 2008. "Political asymmetry and common external tariff in a customs union," Working Papers 2007-038, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. [Downloadable!]
  16. Subhayu Bandyopadhyay & Sajal Lahiri & Suryadipta Roy, 2008. "Enlargement and common external tariff in a political-economic model of customs union," Working Papers 2008-022, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. [Downloadable!]
  17. Gawande, Kishore & Maloney, William & Rojas, Gabriel V. Montes, 2007. "Can foreign lobbying enhance development ? The case of tourism in the Caribbean," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4275, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  18. Marianna Belloc, 2007. "Protection for Sale in the EU," Working Papers 100, Sapienza University of Rome, Department of Public Economics. [Downloadable!]
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