scholarly journals Offshore production's effect on Americans’ attitudes toward trade

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 539-571
Author(s):  
Andrew Kerner ◽  
Jane Sumner ◽  
Brian Richter
Keyword(s):  
Free Trade ◽  
White Men ◽  
Social Aspects ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Experimental Exposure ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Treatment Groups ◽  
Offshore Production ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
Fertile Ground

AbstractAmerican discontent with offshore production features heavily in trade policy debates. But Americans more typically encounter offshore production in apolitical contexts as consumers. We argue that these ostensibly apolitical encounters with offshore production are, in fact, freighted with political consequences. This paper asks: When and for whom does consumer-based exposure to offshore production reduce support for free trade? This is an important in its own right, but also sheds light on the contexts in which more overtly political references to offshore production are likely to find the most fertile ground. We answer these questions using a survey experiment that embeds an offshoring “prime” into an advertisement for pet furniture, varying the location of production across different treatment groups. We find that our experimental exposure to offshore production depressed enthusiasm for free trade, but only when production occurred in China, and mainly among white men living near trade-related job loss. That heterogeneity resonates with work on the economic and social aspects of the decline in American manufacturing employment.

Promises or Policies? An Experimental Analysis of International Agreements and Audience Reactions

2014 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 235-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Chaudoin
Keyword(s):  
Trade Policy ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Experimental Analysis ◽  
International Agreements ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Crisis Bargaining ◽  
Audience Costs ◽  
Policy Effects ◽  
Policy Choices ◽  
Actual Policy

AbstractA key assumption of audience costs theories of crisis bargaining and international cooperation is that audience members have strong preferences for consistency between their leader's commitments and actual policy choices. However, audiences also have strong preferences over the policy choices themselves, regardless of their consistency with past commitments. I conducted a randomized survey experiment to evaluate the magnitude of consistency and policy effects in the context of international agreements over trade policy. Respondents with expressed policy preferences, whether supporting or opposing free trade, have muted reactions to learning that their leader has broken an agreement. Only respondents with no opinion on trade policy are affected by learning that their leader's policy is inconsistent with prior commitments. This suggests that constituents' underlying preferences limit the degree to which audience costs influence policymakers' calculations.

scholarly journals Why the Gender of Traditional Authorities Matters: Intersectionality and Women’s Rights Advocacy in Malawi

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (12) ◽  
pp. 1881-1924 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ragnhild L. Muriaas ◽  
Vibeke Wang ◽  
Lindsay Benstead ◽  
Boniface Dulani ◽  
Lise Rakner
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Local Governance ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Treatment Groups ◽  
Heterogeneous Effects ◽  
Original Survey ◽  
Traditional Authorities ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Marriage Reform

Traditional leadership often coexists with modern political institutions; yet, we know little about how traditional and state authority cues—or those from male or female sources—affect public opinion. Using an original survey experiment of 1,381 Malawians embedded in the 2016 Local Governance Performance Index (LGPI), we randomly assign respondents into one of four treatment groups or a control group to hear messages about a child marriage reform from a female or male traditional authority (TA) or parliamentarian. In the sample as a whole, the female TA is as effective as the control (i.e., no endorsement), while other messengers elicit lower support (i.e., backfire effects). Endorsements produce heterogeneous effects across respondent sex and patrilineal/matrilineal customs, suggesting the need for tailored programs. Our paper adds an intersectional approach to the governance literature and offers a theoretical framework capable of explaining the impact of state and traditional endorsements across policy domains.

Political Legacies: Understanding Their Significance to Contemporary Political Debates

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (03) ◽  
pp. 451-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Fong ◽  
Neil Malhotra ◽  
Yotam Margalit
Keyword(s):  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Discussion Forums ◽  
Online Discussion Forums ◽  
Policy Domain ◽  
Political Debates ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
Mass Public ◽  
Current Events ◽  
The Media ◽  
Made In

ABSTRACTPoliticians bequeath an important legacy after they leave office: the public’s memories of their time in office. Indeed, the media often discuss legacy concerns as a key motivation of politicians. Yet, there has been little empirical analysis of how politicians’ legacies are interpreted and used by the mass public. Analyzing millions of comments from online discussion forums, we show that citizens frequently mobilize memories of past politicians in their discussions of current events. A randomized survey experiment rationalizes such invocations of past politicians: they bolster the persuasiveness of contemporary arguments—particularly bad ones—but only when made in the context of a policy domain specifically associated with a past politician. Our findings suggest that politicians have a strong interest in cultivating a positive, broad, and enduring legacy because memories of them influence policy debates long after they leave office.

DECONSTRUCTING THE ARGUMENT FOR FREE TRADE: A CASE STUDY OF THE ROLE OF ECONOMISTS IN POLICY DEBATES

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Driskill
Keyword(s):  
Trade Liberalization ◽  
Free Trade ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Standard Argument ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
The World ◽  
Value Judgements

This paper argues that, in light of the apparent settled nature of economists’ judgement on the issue of trade liberalization, the profession has stopped thinking critically about the question and, as a consequence, makes poor-quality arguments justifying their consensus. To develop support for this claim, the paper first recounts what economic analysis can say about trade liberalization. Then it analyses the quality of the arguments that economists make in support of free trade. The paper argues that the standard argument made by economists in favour of free trade is either incoherent or implicitly imposes philosophical value judgements about what is good for a nation or society, or it makes leaps of empirical faith about how the world works. The paper concludes with suggestions for better arguments.

Priming Legality: Perceptions of Latino and Undocumented Latino Immigrants

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-113
Author(s):  
Katherine T. McCabe ◽  
Yalidy Matos ◽  
Hannah Walker
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Political Communication ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Latino Immigrants ◽  
Undocumented Immigration ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Priming Effects ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
Documentation Status ◽  
Nationally Representative

Previous work has shown public opinion toward immigrants is malleable based on how immigrants are described in media and elite rhetoric. In a survey experiment on a nationally representative sample of American adults, we extend this research to test for possible priming effects that occur based on how salient documentation status is when respondents proffer opinions on Latino immigrants. Our findings show that when subjects are first asked about “undocumented Latino immigrants,” their attitudes toward “Latino immigrants,” appear more negative, relative to when they are first asked about “Latino immigrants” without invoking the legal modifier. Respondents channel their negative associations with “illegal” or “undocumented” immigration into their opinions of Latino immigrants writ large. The results have implications for political communication, media reporting on immigration, and policy debates, which frequently discuss both “legal” and “undocumented” immigration in the same context.

Framing the Opioid Crisis: Do Racial Frames Shape Beliefs of Whites Losing Ground?

2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-276
Author(s):  
Sarah E. Gollust ◽  
Joanne M. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
News Article ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Treatment Groups ◽  
The Public ◽  
Opioid Crisis ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Absolute Frame

Abstract Context: Although research has begun to examine perceptions of being on the losing side of politics, it has been confined to electoral politics. The context of health disparities, and particularly the opioid crisis, offers a case to explore whether frames that emphasize racial disadvantage activate loser perceptions and the political consequences of such beliefs. Methods: White survey participants (N = 1,549) were randomized into three groups: a control which saw no news article, or one of two treatment groups which saw a news article about the opioid crisis framed to emphasize either the absolute rates of opioid mortality among whites or the comparative rates of opioid mortality among whites compared to blacks. Findings: Among control group participants, perceiving oneself a political loser was unrelated to attitudes about addressing opioids, whereas those who perceived whites to be on the losing side of public health had a less empathetic response to the opioid crisis. The comparative frame led to greater beliefs that whites are on the losing side of public health, whereas the absolute frame led to more empathetic policy opinions. Conclusions: Perceptions that one's racial group has lost ground in the public health context could have political consequences that future research should explore.

Preferences for the Scope of Protests

2020 ◽  
pp. 106591292090500
Author(s):  
Miquel Pellicer ◽  
Eva Wegner ◽  
Alexander De Juan
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
South African ◽  
Small Groups ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
The Political ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Large Share ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
Individual Preferences

This paper studies a dimension of protest largely overlooked in the literature: protest scope, that is, whether protests seek large, structural, changes for a large share of the population or focus on small-scale improvements for small groups. We argue that this protest dimension is relevant for understanding the political consequences of protests. We show empirically that protests vary substantially in scope and that scope is not collinear with other protest dimensions, such as size, motive, or tactics. We explore drivers of individual preferences for protest scope with a survey experiment in two South African townships. We find that respondents made to feel more efficacious tend to support protests of broader scope. This effect operates via a social psychology channel whereby efficacy leads people to assign blame for their problems to more systemic causes.

scholarly journals Experimentally Induced Selenosis in Yellow-Bellied Slider Turtles (Trachemys scripta scripta)

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
David L. Haskins ◽  
Elizabeth W. Howerth ◽  
Tracey D. Tuberville
Keyword(s):  
Trachemys Scripta ◽  
High Dose ◽  
Wild Animals ◽  
Epidermal Hyperplasia ◽  
Experimental Exposure ◽  
Treatment Groups ◽  
Selenium Treatment ◽  
Excessive Intake ◽  
Histopathologic Changes ◽  
Cornified Layer

Selenosis, or selenium toxicosis, occurs in wildlife and livestock, usually because of excessive intake of selenium via selenium-containing plants. Although it is known that wild slider turtles can accumulate large amounts of selenium, little is known about how selenium exposure may affect these reptiles. In this study, the authors report histopathologic changes in yellow-bellied sliders ( Trachemys scripta scripta) caused by experimental exposure to selenomethionine. Microscopic changes in kidney and claw tissue were most significant and resembled those reported in birds. Turtles in the selenium treatment groups had acute tubular degeneration and regeneration in the kidney, with hyaline droplets in the high-dose animals, and changes in the claws ranging from epidermal hyperplasia with disorganization and intercellular edema to ulceration, and accumulation of seroheterophilic exudate between the epidermis and cornified layer. Although selenium burdens in this study are comparable with values found in wild slider turtles, more data are needed to determine if similar histopathologic abnormalities arise in wild animals exposed to high levels of selenium.

scholarly journals Gender and policy persuasion

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Georgia Anderson-Nilsson ◽  
Amanda Clayton
Keyword(s):  
Birth Control ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Female Candidate ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
Female Politicians ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Male Candidate

Abstract Are policy arguments more or less persuasive when they are made by female politicians? Using a diverse sample of American respondents, we conduct a survey experiment which randomly varies the gender associated with two co-partisan candidates across four policy debates. We find strong effects contingent on respondent partisanship and gender, most notably on the issue of access to birth control. On this issue, regardless of the candidate's stance, Democratic respondents, particularly Democratic men, are much more likely to agree with the female candidate. Conversely, Republican respondents, particularly Republican women, are much more likely to agree with the male candidate. We discuss the implications of our findings for the meaning of gender as a heuristic in a highly partisan environment.

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