Influence of Economic Globalization on Trade Policy: A Study Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K03524
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: International relations
• Research Institution: Nagasaki University
• Principal Investigator: FUJITA Taisuke 長崎大学, 経済学部, 准教授 (40584694)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-10-21 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 貿易政策 / 質的比較分析

Outline of Final Research Achievements

What determines people’s attitude toward regional trade agreements? Many existing studies have emphasized the influence of economic factors on their attitude. The present study employing an online survey experiment, however, showed that people decide their attitude toward regional trade agreements taking not only economic factors but also national security factor into consideration.
The present study also shows that social phenomena such as nuclear proliferation are caused by complex causation, combinations of multiple conditions. The study demonstrates that Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) is a powerful method which tries to grasp what combinations of factors cause a social phenomenon rather than which factor is a relatively important determinant.

Free Research Field

国際関係論

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

地域貿易協定のような貿易政策について考える際、たとえ民意というものを踏まえた場合であっても、（既存研究のように）経済的要因だけを考慮していては不十分なことが明らかになった。安全保障面で対立的な関係にある国との貿易協定に、人々は相対的に否定的な態度を示すからである。このことは、経済的な関係を高めることで、安全保障関係を改善するという道筋が容易ではないことをも示唆する点で、社会的意義を有すると思われる。