Conservative controlled states cut infrastructure and welfarespending in response to increased exposure to global trade

摘要

The past year has seen growing controversy over the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal whichudis currently being negotiated between 12 countries, the U.S. included. Concerns about economicuddislocation stemming from similar trade deals often lead social democratic governments toudincrease spending on welfare programs to compensate citizens. Given the lack of a U.S. socialuddemocratic party, the response of state governments to global economic liberalization is oftenudquite different. In new research, Brian Krueger and Ping Xu find that when exposed to higherudlevels of international trade, left-leaning state governments maintain their levels of welfare andudinfrastructure spending, while conservative administrations decrease it. They explain theseuddiffering reactions may be partly explained by the increasing levels of policy polarization in stateudgovernments.