Should the United States continue to pursue free trade agreements? A socio-economic perspective

E. M. Tavernier, A. Yadavalli

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

This paper examines from the perspective of New Jersey agricultural producers, whether the US should continue to pursue trade agreements. The study uses data from the 2005 National Agricultural Food and Public Policy Preference Survey. Twenty seven states participated in the survey. The New Jersey component of survey was mailed to 700 randomly selected farm operators. This number represents approximately 7% of all the farm operators in the state. A total of 162 farm operators responded to the survey, giving a response rate of 23%. The paper hypothesizes that farm and ranch operator preferences regarding trade agreements are influenced by such factors as age, farm sales, income, education, and tenure or duration of farm ownership. In particular the paper hypothesizes that there exists a positive relationship between those variables and the free trade variable. To test that hypothesis the paper uses logistic regression. The results show a positive relationship between the dependent variable and age, tenure, income and education but a negative relationship between the dependent variable and sales. The negative relationship with sales is surprising. The authors conjecture that the recent trade pact between the U.S. and Colombia is being greeted with some apprehension by respondents.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)189-198
Number of pages10
JournalTropical Agriculture
Volume89
Issue number3
StatePublished - Jul 2012

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Development
  • Agronomy and Crop Science

Keywords

  • Free trade agreements
  • Trade barriers

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