The focus of much recent economic anxiety has been on the relationship between job losses and a limited number of hot-button issues, in particular (offshore) outsourcing and immigration. I use the variation over time (from a consistent Gallup poll administered from 1992 to 2009) and in the cross section (from the German Marshall Fund’s 2007 survey ‘Perspectives on Trade and Poverty Reduction’) to explore potential causes of recent aversion to globalization. I demonstrate that up until recently views on foreign trade were highly correlated with the national unemployment rate. Views on free trade are also strongly related to opinions of how the economy is doing. I further assess predictors of opinions on outsourcing and immigration, as they relate to the causes of job losses. Education, occupation, work experience, and political party are important predictors of views on the economy, free trade, and job losses. In contrast to prior research, more education predicts greater support for trade intervention in the form of limits on outsourcing, which may explain recent fluctuations in aggregate public opinion.
Journal of World Trade