Trade liberalization, distribution and employment

The paper approaches aspects of the political economy of trade liberalization. It examines the reasons for the establishment of protectionist practices, the social costs of such practices and the relation between distributive conflicts and protectionism, emphasizing the formation of distributive coalitions. We apply these concepts and ideas to the Brazilian case in order to examine the distributive effects of the protectionist structure which prevailed until the late 1980’s and the potential changes over the 1990’s. Finally, we develop a macroeconomic model to explore the effects of liberalization on the functional distribution of income and aggregate demand.

KEYWORDS:
Trade liberalization; protectionism; interest groups