Liberalization for Sale: Corporate Demands and Lobbying over FTAs

Firm-based approaches to international trade have revolutionized the study of trade politics. Corporate participation in political processes is costly, limiting access to large, productive, well-resourced, and often internationally engaged firms. This implies a pro-trade bias in corporate lobbying d...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Administrative sciences 2023-10, Vol.13 (10), p.227
Main Author:	Plouffe, Michael
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	business–government relations Campaign contributions Collective action Commercial policy Competition Competitive advantage Expenditures firm heterogeneity Free trade Grubel, Herbert G Interest groups Lobbying Participation Political aspects Politics Product differentiation Productivity Trade liberalization Trade policy trade politics
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Firm-based approaches to international trade have revolutionized the study of trade politics. Corporate participation in political processes is costly, limiting access to large, productive, well-resourced, and often internationally engaged firms. This implies a pro-trade bias in corporate lobbying demands over trade policy. I examine this relationship in the case of three free trade agreements passed by the United States Congress in 2011. I combine public statements from firms on the FTAs with corporate lobbying activities and find that both lobbying firms and those that lobbied and publicly disclosed their policy positions were more productive than the typical publicly traded firm. Likewise, firms with income from foreign affiliates were more likely to be politically active than others. These results contribute to a vibrant body of research into the complex relationships firms hold with policies governing access to international markets.
ISSN:	2076-3387 2076-3387