This paper examines general support for trade at the individual level, measures its sensitivity to pro- and anti-trade framing, and relates these effects to how framing affects specific beliefs about trade. The data come from a randomized experiment we included in the 2018 Latinobarometro survey covering 18 countries. We find that respondents' high support for trade is based primarily on perceived employment gains. General support for trade is unaffected by consumption benefits framing, but is highly sensitive downward to employment loss framing. Positive framing does shift upward respondent beliefs that trade reduces consumption prices, but also raises concerns about low wages. Negative framing substantially weakens the prevailing beliefs that trade brings higher employment. Framing impacts reflect behavioral responses and depend on country-level factors, such as unemployment and import dependence, as well as individual-level factors, education in particular moderating framing responses in line with relative factor endowments theories of trade.

本文考察了个人对贸易的总体支持，衡量了贸易对贸易和反贸易框架的敏感性，并将这些影响与框架如何影响特定的贸易信念相关联。数据来自我们在2018年Latinobarometro调查中涵盖的18个国家的随机实验。我们发现，受访者对贸易的高度支持主要是基于可感知的就业增长。对贸易的一般支持不受消费利益框架的影响，但对就业损失框架高度敏感。积极的框架确实改变了受访者的信念，即贸易降低了消费价格，但也引发了人们对低工资的担忧。负面的构架大大削弱了人们普遍认为贸易带来更高就业机会的信念。