Attitudes toward Globalization in Ranked Ethnic Societies

Abstract

Canonical scholarship has focused on the economic basis of individual support for trade. Separately, studies of developing country politics have specified ethnicity as a crucial driver of political behavior. We develop a novel argument to demonstrate how ethnic identity structures support for global economic integration. In ranked ethnic systems, marginalized ethnic groups are excluded from domestic labor markets and compartmentalized into lower-skill occupations. International trade disrupts this status quo by offering marginalized groups less discriminatory avenues for economic advancement. We present a wealth of observational and experimental evidence from India to show that individuals in disadvantaged communities are significantly more likely to support trade liberalization than members of dominant ethnic groups. Experimental tests reveal that ethnic considerations reinforce the effects of material self-interest for members of marginalized communities. Our findings point to ethnicity as a key determinant of economic policy preferences regarding globalization in culturally segmented societies