Rodrik on Foreigners

Rodrik writes:

So the "us" and "them" characterization that Tyler attributes to irrational nativism perhaps has more to do with the absence of a common set of international rules on labor standards, environment, consumer safety, and so on.

Tyler responds ably here, I will add a few more comments.  A testable implication of Rodrik’s hypothesis is that people will be more upset about international trade than immigration since foreigners in foreign countries obey different rules but immigrants obey the same rule as us.  In reality, people are more upset by immigration than by trade and as a result we are much closer to free trade than to free immigration.

Rodrik has a very Ivory-tower view of what people care about.  Rodrik may be upset that people in other countries have poor on-the-job safety but (for the most part) workers who lose their jobs to foreigners really don’t give a damn.  What U.S. workers are upset about is losing their job and if asked to name the problem the U.S. worker will almost certainly say it’s the low wages of foreigners not their poor working conditions.  Moreover, the worker’s diagnosis of the problem (problem to him or her that is) is correct and Rodrik’s diagnosis is wrong.  Why?  Because higher safety standards in foreign countries would cause foreign wages to fall and thus would not much reduce competition from abroad, which is what the worker cares about.  I assume that Rodrik knows this even if the worker does not. 

Rodrik’s deeper argument is also peculiar, especially for a liberal economist.  A liberal economist should understand that for the most part labor, environmental and consumer safety standards are chosen not imposed (not always, of course, but for the most part in the long run).  In the United States we have a lot of job safety because we are wealthy and are willing to pay for job safety with a reduction in our (already high) wages.  In other words, Americans buy a lot of on-the-job safety for the same reasons we buy a lot of smoke alarms and DVD players.  (OSHA has very little effect on job safety.)  Job-safety is thus a choice Americans make about what to consume – we use some of our wealth to buy safety both at home and at work and some of our wealth to buy DVD players.  Thus, to argue that we shouldn’t trade with foreigners because they don’t have the same job safety as Americans makes about as much sense as arguing that we shouldn’t trade with foreigners because foreigners don’t buy as many DVD players as Americans.