The welfare economics and the political economy of Japanese beef trade liberalization: An empirical application of new political economy theory
Agricultural trade protection has been common in most industrialized nations for the last decades. While economic inefficiency of trade protection policy has been argued, the assertion may not hold if institutions functioning in economic equilibrium are appropriately recognized. Becker proposes that currently adopted policy tends to be more efficient than others (efficient redistribution hypothesis; ERH). Although the ERH has been a crucial assumption in many political economy models, an empirical test employing a rigorous method has not yet appeared. While the political preference function (PPF) studies have been abundant, they entail serious methodological weaknesses and their political weight estimates are often misleading.
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign