Speaker:Pan Zhenyu, Assistant Professor, Economics and Management School, Wuhan University

Date:April 20, 2017

Time:3:30 pm-5:00pm

Location:Room 321, Block B, Zhixin Building, Central Campus

Sponsor:the School of Economics

Abstract:

Although protectionism became a salient issue in the 2016 presi-dential election campaign, both Republican and Democratic adminis-trations have been silently promoting free trade for decades. We set up a two-party electoral competition model in a two-dimensional policy space with campaign contributions by a group (exporting/multinationalrms) that is interested in promoting free trade, for which voters do not have positive sentiment. Assuming that voters are impressionable to campaign spending for/against candidates, we analyze the optimal contract between the interest group and the candidates on policy issues and campaign contributions. If the candidates’ winning chances are similar, and if voters' negative semtiment to free trade is not too strong, the interest group contributes to both candidates to make free trade a nonsalient issue, and the candidates compete over the other(ideological) dimension only.

Bio:

Prof. Pan ZhenYu completed his Ph.D. from Economics Department in Boston College, USA in 2014. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Finance & Taxation at Economics and Management School of Wuhan University. His main research interests include Public Economics, Urban Economics and Political Economy.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.econ.sdu.edu.cn/info/1072/26160.htm

Edited by: Zhang Xinyuan