Patrick Bayer (Strathclyde, presenter) and Federica Genovese (Essex), “Climate Policy Costs, Regional Identity and Backlash against International Cooperation”

Abstract: Scholars in international political economy are increasingly interested in how the sub- national patterns of major economic adjustments such as trade investment and environmental reforms fuel public opposition to international institutions that are meant to catalyze those adjustments. While the literature has sharpened the understanding of material policy costs and their implications for public […]

Kate McNamara (Georgetown), “The Politics of the New European Industrial Policy: How a Post-Neoliberal Shift Is Transforming the European Union”

Abstract: Markets require rules, made and enforced by governments, and modern market-making has therefore unfolded as an intrinsic part of state-building. While the European Union is not a Weberian state, it has not been immune to these processes. Over the last three decades it has constructed a Single European Market and a currency while building […]

Ed Mansfield (Penn, presenter) and Omer Solodoch (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), “Pandemic Protectionism: COVID-19 and the Rise of Public Opposition to Trade”

Abstract: How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect public attitudes toward international trade? In this study, we argue that the pandemic promoted protectionist sentiment in the United States. Based on cross-sectional and panel data, we find a substantial increase in Americans’ opposition to trade following the outbreak of the pandemic. This heightened opposition was both long-lasting […]

Boram Lee (LSE), “Baptists and Bootleggers in Trade Politics: How Treaty Recognition Makes Side Agreements Credible”

Studies show that liberalizing governments include social and environmental clauses in trade agreements to gain pro-trade support from activists. However, these studies do not address how the government makes issue linkage credible to activists, who understand that the government has weak incentives to enforce such linkages once the agreement is ratified. How do liberalizing governments […]