Why do politicians in developed nations prefer foreign trade policy to income redistribution to counteract income inequality resulting from globalisation? Online publication date: Mon, 07-Feb-2005
by Marcus Marktanner
Global Business and Economics Review (GBER), Vol. 2, No. 2, 2000
Abstract: Why is, in developed nations, foreign trade policy favoured to direct income redistribution to counteract rising income inequality resulting from globalisation? Foreign trade theory suggests that a politician's wisest policy was to capture all welfare gains from free trade and to redistribute some of the winners' gains to the losers. By implementing votes and budget maximisation goals of a politician into the analysis, it is shown that, in fact, it might be politically reasonable to redistribute income indirectly through trade policy. However, this will be identified as a potential rationality trap demanding for institutional changes of the global trade architecture.
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