Abstract

International trade shapes everyday lives and life chances the world over. Trade also can strengthen global cooperation or create conflict. Although trade policy is often considered within the purview of domestic and international elites, the public’s attitudes towards trade have both shaped and stymied elite behaviour. Understanding how individuals develop preferences about trade policy is challenging but can help explain when and how the public matters. Economic explanations based on individuals’ employment and consumption patterns underpin most scholarly work in this area but such models fall short in predicting individuals’ stated preferences and voting patterns. This work considers alternative explanations, rooted in race and gender, for individuals’ preferences for trade policy. It concludes by showing that political and media messaging serve to highlight and replicate gender- and race-based biases in trade.