Local Economic and Political Effects of Trade Deals: Evidence from NAFTA

Why have white, less educated voters left the Democratic Party over the past few decades? Scholars have proposed ethnocentrism, social issues and deindustrialization as potential answers. We highlight the role played by the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In event-study analysis, we demonstrate that counties whose 1990 employment […] Read more »

Supply chain crisis has voters on edge

Much of the COVID-19 pandemic has been about masks, hospitalizations and vaccinations, but another big part of the story revolves around inflation, worker shortages and empty product shelves. Ultimately, these economic impacts may linger because they are remarkably complicated and defy silver bullet solutions. Suddenly, logistics and supply chain management […] Read more »

A Foreign Policy for the Middle Class—What Americans Think

… As the president wrote in the 2021 Interim National Security Strategic Guidance, “America is back. Diplomacy is back. Alliances are back.” Do the American people believe that America is back? And do they support the policies laid out in the Biden administration’s Foreign Policy for the Middle Class? The […] Read more »

Biden’s Buy American push is good politics but bad economics

With votes in the Senate to advance his bipartisan compromise last week, President Joe Biden took a big step toward upgrading America’s infrastructure. And he took a small step toward ensuring Washington can upgrade less of it. That step backward came with Biden’s move last week to stiffen requirements that […] Read more »

China’s international image remains broadly negative as views of the U.S. rebound

Views of the United States and China have diverged sharply in parts of the world. Whereas last year negative views of both countries were at or near historic highs, today, positive views of the U.S. have rebounded across 17 advanced economies while most continue to see China in an unfavorable […] Read more »