%A John Douglas Wilson, Ilkay Yilmaz %T Free-Trade Agreements in a Model of Trade, Migration and Politics %0 Journal Article %D 2018 %J Front. Econ. China %J Frontiers of Economics in China %@ 1673-3444 %R 10.3868/s060-007-018-0003-7 %P 15-31 %V 13 %N 1 %U {https://journal.hep.com.cn/fec/EN/10.3868/s060-007-018-0003-7 %8 2018-03-15 %X

This paper uses a probabilistic voting model to investigate voting for a free-trade agreement between a labor-abundant country and a capital-abundant country. Migration from the labor-abundant country to the capital-abundant country increases the probability of a free-trade agreement, with lower migration costs leading to more migration and a higher free-trade probability. On the other hand, if a lower probability of free trade is caused by an increased voter bias against free-trade candidates, then there is less migration. A dynamic extension of the model is also investigated.