research

Under Review:

1. Protectionism Reconsidered: Economic Insecurity and the Gender Gap in Trade Attitudes
   Abstract

   While previous research has revealed a gender gap in trade attitudes and the rise of populism and economic protectionism, it has paid less attention to why women continue to support protectionism despite their lack of populist attitudes. The gender gap in trade attitudes has not closed despite the rise of populism, which has taken place particularly among men. Why are women consistently more protectionist than men, and when does men's populism turn into protectionism? I examine the causal process of preference formation across genders using a decomposition analysis, a survey experiment, and structural topic models. I argue that economic insecurity leads both women and men to form protectionist attitudes. My findings suggest that, for women, persistent gender discrimination leads to the perception of negative trade effects on their gender group, fostering protectionism. For men, stochastic trade shocks activate populism, which transforms into protectionism when they perceive adverse trade effects on their country.

2. Beyond Paternalism: How Leadership Diversity Shapes Foreign Aid Perceptions in South Africa (with Simone Dietrich and Rikio Inouye)
   Abstract

   This paper examines how the racial and gender composition of donor leadership shapes public opinion in recipient countries. Focusing on South Africa, we explore whether the inclusion of women and Black individuals in U.S. foreign aid leadership influences perceptions of aid programs. Given the legacy of neocolonialism in foreign assistance, we argue that such non-traditional leadership signals a break from paternalistic models, enhancing perceived alignment with recipient needs. Using a two-wave survey experiment conducted in South Africa in 2024, we manipulate the race and gender composition of U.S. aid leaders. We find that both descriptive representation and greater inclusion of marginalized groups improve favorability toward U.S. leadership, especially among women and Black respondents. However, the effects weaken among individuals with sexist attitudes. Our findings highlight how non-traditional leadership can enhance perceived responsiveness, contributing to broader debates on aid effectiveness, international legitimacy, and the intersectional politics of foreign policy institutions.

Selected Working Papers:

1. How Firms Prioritize the Diffusion of Environmental, Social, and Governance Norms in Supply Chains
   Abstract

   Firms are increasingly responsible for the international diffusion of norms across environmental, labor, and governance domains. However, little is known about how firms allocate responsibility across these domains. By considering multiple domains at once, I find that firms prioritize their efforts to uphold environmental norms ("E") over social ("S") and governance ("G") norms when they are pressured by customer firms and countries. This supports a new theory of firm obfuscation, in which competition in supply chains and the bundling of ratings across environmental, social, and governance (ESG) domains, incentivize firms to improve in less costly domains. To empirically test this theory, I match firm-level supply chain relationships to five datasets containing ESG ratings, ESG risk incidents, ESG proposals, country-level ESG regulatory instruments, and firm characteristics.

2. Chains of Lobbying: How Sustainability Risks in Supply Chains Affect Corporate Political Activities (with Hyunjoo Oh)
   Abstract

   With the growing emphasis on sustainability, downstream customer firms are increasingly accountable for their upstream suppliers' ESG violations, facing trade restrictions and limited access to international suppliers. This drives them to influence policy through lobbying, given the capital investments required to ensure ESG compliance and to alter supply chain relationships. We propose two hypotheses: (1) customer firms tend to increase lobbying efforts following their suppliers' ESG risk incidents, and (2) these efforts are more pronounced for environmental risks due to their visibility and salience. Using U.S. firm-level lobbying data, global supply chain data, ESG risk incidents, and firm characteristics from 2007–2019, our analysis shows that downstream firms increase lobbying expenditures, specifically trade issues, after ESG risk incidents. Moreover, environmental risk incidents lead to an increase in lobbying on environmental and trade issues, while social or governance risks do not affect lobbying expenditures. This study highlights how supply chain sustainability risks, particularly environmental issues, drive customer firms' lobbying behavior.

3. Who Gets Protection from Protectionism? Evidence from the Buy American Act (with Kyuwon Lee, Hye Young You)
   Abstract

4. Automation, Economic Insecurity, and Gendered Social Policy Attitudes: Evidence from South Korea (with Jae-wook Lee)
   Abstract

   Recent advances in automation have raised concerns about job insecurity, potentially increasing support for social policies. While existing research links policy preferences to individuals’ economic vulnerability, the role of identity—particularly gender—remains underexplored. We argue that automation-driven layoffs do not universally increase support for social protection; rather, their effects are shaped by gender norms. Using a survey experiment in South Korea, we show that automation-driven job loss increases support for an ex-ante protective measure (e.g., Automation Tax) only when male workers are affected. This selective protection reflects the male-breadwinner model, which views male labor as more essential to household income and male job loss as more socially disruptive. The disparity in social policy preferences by laid-off's gender profile is pronounced among individuals who hold sexist attitudes. Our findings reveal how gendered beliefs about labor value shape social protection preferences, highlighting identity-based biases in responses to economic change.

5. Protectionism for Him, Welfare for Her: The Trade Origins of Gendered Political Cleavages (with Thomas M. Flaherty)
   Abstract

   What explains gendered political cleavages over globalization? Although earlier work suggests that women support trade barriers more than men, recent populist movements reveal the opposite. We develop a theory that incorporates family economic structures into the specific factors model of trade preferences, showing how traditional gender roles reshape the distributional effects of economic policies: male family members benefit more from protectionism, while female members benefit more from welfare compensation. We test this by tracking how exogenous trade shocks propagate through families to affect survey respondents’ policy preferences. When respondents’ family members suffer increased import competition, males significantly turn to trade and migration restrictions, while females turn to family-oriented welfare policies. These indirect family effects also shape electoral behavior, fueling male support for populists and decreasing female participation in elections. The findings underscore the importance of moving beyond individual voter characteristics to understand fully gendered political cleavages over economic policy.

6. Insecurity and Attitudes toward Globalization: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa (with Sarah Brooks)
   Abstract

   Canonical trade models (Heckscher-Ohlin-Stolper Samuelson) predict that developing countries, rich in low-skilled labor, tend to favor free trade, a view largely confirmed by studies. However, most research on the globalization backlash focuses on advanced industrial nations, overlooking variations within the developing world. Our study addresses this by examining differences between middle-income emerging democracies and poorer developing nations, and by distinguishing between attitudes toward trade and migration. We argue that while developing nations broadly support trade liberalization, middle-income countries may experience discontent over migration, similar to advanced nations. Using a conjoint survey experiment in South Africa and Zimbabwe, we find that South African respondents, from a middle-income nation, express migration preferences akin to those in advanced industrial nations, while maintaining mixed views on trade. This research suggests a need for a more nuanced understanding of globalization, factoring in varying economic contexts and attitudes within developing nations.