Economic versus Non-Economic Considerations in Trade Attitude Formation: Preferences of Parents and Non-Parents in the United States

International political economy research rigorously debates the importance of economic versus non-economic considerations when forming trade policy preferences. While cultural, security, and other considerations fall under the category of non-economic considerations, this paper focuses on value and quality concerns that may influence attitudes about trade. Prior research has found patterns of who is more likely to have quality concerns or value-based attitudes towards trade (i.e., prioritizing green trade or “fair” trade). While it is not surprising that more affluent or highly educated people hold more values-driven attitudes towards trade policy, this paper is interested in how parents—a group who is widely believed to be more pro-social and conscious of these considerations but also faces greater economic constraints and vulnerabilities—weigh economic and other considerations in forming their trade attitudes. Building on the fair-trade literature, we argue safety concerns and environmental concerns compete with pocketbook considerations in the formulation of trade attitudes among the parents of minor children. Using original survey experiments in a 2023 survey of 2,000 Americans, we explore how considerations about 1) the price and quality of imports and 2) the price and environmental impact of trade impact individuals’ trade policy preferences. We specifically examine differences among those with and without children. We find that when the safety of imports is assured, parents are less protectionist (i.e., more supportive of government policies that encourage imports) than non-parents. Non-parents’ attitudes towards trade are unaffected by treatments about the safety of imports. Parents, on the other hand, are less supportive of prioritizing environmental protection when it is costly but are not more supportive when primed that it can be done without cost. These findings point to the importance of economic factors in trade policy preference formation even among groups who have been found to be relatively more sensitive to “fair” trade and other non-economic considerations.