Economists in congress: how economic education motivates votes on free trade in congress

In 2005 the U.S. Congress passed the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), causing the immediate elimination of tariffs on goods traded between the member nations. In the mold of the literature studying the pattern of voting in Congress, this paper attempts to understand why a member of Con...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of private enterprise Vol. 27; no. 2; p. 83
Main Author O'Roark, J. Brian
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Martin Association of Private Enterprise Education 22.03.2012
Subjects
Behavior
Bias
Economics
Economics education
Economists
Education
Federal legislation
Free trade
Political aspects
Political parties
Protectionism
Public officials
Studies
Tariffs
Trade agreements
Trade restrictions
Voting
United States > US
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Summary:In 2005 the U.S. Congress passed the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), causing the immediate elimination of tariffs on goods traded between the member nations. In the mold of the literature studying the pattern of voting in Congress, this paper attempts to understand why a member of Congress would have supported the CAFTA legislation. We run a probit model of voting including a measure of undergraduate college major in the analysis. The findings indicate that those who majored in economics are systematically more likely than any other college major classification to vote in favor of this free trade agreement.
ISSN:0890-913X