Interests abroad and actions at home : the politics of U.S. bilateral trade balances
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Despite the implications for the distribution of the gains and losses from trade, bilateral trade balances have been under-examined as both structural and institutional variables. The existing literature has failed to examine any evidence to explain why some bilateral trade balances have become politicized while others have been ignored by the government through changes in both the security relationships and economic position of the United States. This thesis addresses this omission by studying the bilateral trade balances of the United States from 1946 to the present, using a core dataset of all trade balances between the United States and its trading partners, a set of over 150 countries. This comprehensive data reveals significant bilateral variation in the politicization of bilateral trade balances in the realm of trade policy, supporting the hypothesis that variations in the size of the bilateral trade balance result in variations in political responses. This thesis makes several contributions to the literature. First, I demonstrate the importance of reconceptualizing the measurement of bilateral trade balances using the bilateral terms-of-trade. Secondly, I present evidence demonstrating the relationship between the size of bilateral trade balances and politicization. To study government action on bilateral trade balances, I analyze anti-dumping cases, showing that U.S. foreign direct investment is an important predictor of government action against bilateral trade deficits. I then analyze the impact of bilateral trade balances upon mass politicization, using an original measure of media attention. Finally, I present qualitative evidence of the variations in politicization by examining the history of trade conflicts between the United States and Japan. Overall, I demonstrate that bilateral trade balances are important to understanding variations in the politicization of trade.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2012 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Jester, Ashley Renee |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Political Science. |
| Primary advisor | Goldstein, Judith |
| Thesis advisor | Goldstein, Judith |
| Thesis advisor | Krasner, Stephen D, 1942- |
| Thesis advisor | Rivers, Douglas, 1956- |
| Advisor | Krasner, Stephen D, 1942- |
| Advisor | Rivers, Douglas, 1956- |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Ashley Renee Jester. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Political Science. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2012. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2012 by Ashley Renee Jester
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC-ND).
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