Relative Gains in the Shadow of a Trade War

Abstract When do people care about relative gains in trade? Much of the international relations scholarship—and much political rhetoric on trade—would lead us to expect support for a trade policy that benefits ourselves more than it others. Yet, large interdisciplinary literature also points prevalence and importance other-regarding preferences, rendering conventional wisdom contestable. We investigate whether how influence preferences through an original survey experiment midst China–US war. find win-win scenario, shape opinion: if both sides are gaining, want gain their foreign partner. However, these considerations offset win-lose scenario where other side is losing out. Relative-gains causally affect opinion trade, but not “beggar-thy-neighbor” or even “beggar-thy-rival” situation. These findings contribute our understanding role provide first experimental evidence relative-gains can be by trade.