Commercial Imperialism? Political Influence and Trade During the Cold War / Daniel Berger, William Easterly, Nathan Nunn, Shanker Satyanath.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Berger, Daniel.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Easterly, William.

Nunn, Nathan.

Satyanath, Shanker.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w15981.

NBER working paper series no. w15981

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2010.

Summary:

We exploit the recent declassification of CIA documents and examine whether there is evidence of US power being used to influence countries' decisions regarding international trade. We measure US influence using a newly constructed annual panel of CIA interventions aimed at installing and supporting leaders during the Cold War. Our presumption is that the US had greater influence over foreign leaders that were installed and backed by the CIA. We show that following CIA interventions there was an increase in foreign-country imports from the US, but there was no similar increase in foreign-country exports to the US. Further, the increase in US exports was concentrated in industries in which the US had a comparative disadvantage in producing, not a comparative advantage. This is consistent with US influence being used to create a larger foreign market for American products. Our analysis is able to rule out decreased bilateral trade costs, changing political ideology, and an increased supply of US loans and grants as explanations for the increase in US exports to the intervened country. We provide evidence that the increase in US exports arose through direct purchases of US products by foreign governments.

Notes:

Print version record

May 2010.