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Spring 2012

ISSN 0890-913X

Volume 27, Number 2

Categories: Politics | Spring 2012

Economists in Congress: How Economic Education Motivates Votes on Free Trade in Congress

J. Brian O’Roark, Robert Morris University

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TheJournalofPrivateEnterprise27(2),2012,83–101EconomistsinCongress:HowEconomicEducationMotivatesVotesonFreeTradeinCongressJ.BrianO’RoarkRobertMorrisUniversityAbstractIn2005theU.S.CongresspassedtheCentralAmericanFreeTradeAgreement(CAFTA),causingtheimmediateeliminationoftariffsongoodstradedbetweenthemembernations.InthemoldoftheliteraturestudyingthepatternofvotinginCongress,thispaperattemptstounderstandwhyamemberofCongresswouldhavesupportedtheCAFTAlegislation.Werunaprobitmodelofvotingincludingameasureofundergraduatecollegemajorintheanalysis.Thefindingsindicatethatthosewhomajoredineconomicsaresystematicallymorelikelythananyothercollegemajorclassificationtovoteinfavorofthisfreetradeagreement.JELCodes:A20,D72,F13Keywords:Behaviortheory;CAFTA;Congressionalvotingbehavior;EconomiceducationI.IntroductionThesubstantivedifferencesinworldviewbetweeneconomistsandthegeneralpopulationoneconomicissueshavebeenwelldocumented(Fulleretal.,1995;Blendonetal.,1997;WalstadandRebeck,2002;Caplan,2002;Miller,2009).Oneoftheconsistentoutcomesofthisresearchisthegeneralsuspicionunderwhichthelayman,andsomepoliticians,holdsfreetradeagreements.Thisisthoughttoleadtotheoutsourcingofjobs,alongwiththebeliefthattradeisnotmutuallybeneficial.Caplan(2007,p.36)referstothisasthe“anti-foreignbias”inwhichapredispositionexistsagainsttheeconomicbenefitsresultingfromdealingswithothercountries.Since2007pollresultshaveconsistentlyshownsupportforCaplan’santiforeignbias.SomepollnumbersaresummarizedinTable1,withthetonebeingdecidedlyanti-trade.Individualcitizenshowever,donotwritetradepolicy.Whileindividualscanregistertheirapprovalordisapprovalofsuchpolicy,83

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Title	Economists in Congress: How Economic Education Motivates Votes on Free Trade in Congress
Authors/Creators:	J. Brian O’Roark, Robert Morris University
Year:	2012
Volume:	27
Number:	2
Pages:	83 - 101
Publisher:	The Association of Private Enterprise Education
ISSN:	0890-913X
Document Type:	Articles
Keywords:	Behavior theory, CAFTA, Congressional voting behavior, Economic education, legislation, Central America, trade, government policy

Citation:
O’Roark, J. Brian / 2012. "Economists in Congress: How Economic Education Motivates Votes on Free Trade in Congress." The Journal of Private Enterprise, 27(2): 83-101.