The political economics of international trade: The impact of institutions, governance quality, and public spending

An understudied area of international trade is the role politics plays in impacting trade levels between states. Politics as used here can comprise a broad array of non-economic factors including institutions, governments, public spending that relate to the governance of a state or agreements between states. Economists in recent years have begun exploring in much greater detail the link between politics and economics, leading to many insights into political science, institutions, economic growth, questions of equity, and corruption, among others. Recent research on the political economics of international trade has tended to focus more on interest group formation and influence on trade policy. However, significant gaps remain beyond the role of interest groups in formulating trade policy.;A major question of interest to political scientists and economists involves the impact of governance structures on the international economy. The role of domestic and international governance structures and behavior on international trade in many areas remain an open question. Specifically, the impact of democracy, international institutions, and government spending on international trade remains unanswered, but of interest to political scientists interested in questions of globalization and economists interested in political variables. My research specifically targets three levels of political variables and their impact on international trade. First, I study the role of international institutions via the impact of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on trade. Second, I study the role of state level democracy and governance and their impact on international trade. Third, I study the behavior of government via spending patterns and their role in China on the international trading patterns of provinces. While the importance of understanding the theory and empirics of international trade, the impact of domestic and international institutions and governance plays a significant role in creating the incentives to promote international trade.