DP18822 Populism and the Skill-Content of Globalization

• Frédéric Docquier Stefano Iandolo Hillel Rapoport Riccardo Turati Gonzague Vannoorenberghe
10 Feb 2024

We propose new measures of populism based on political parties electoral scores and platforms from the Manifesto Project Database for the period 1960-2018. We then show empirically that over the period considered, the evolution of populism is significantly affected by the extent and skill content of immigration and trade shocks. Specifically, imports of low-skill labor intensive goods generate more right-wing populism while low-skill immigration generates a shift of votes to the right, with more vote for right-wing populist parties and less votes for left-wing populist parties. Finally, imports of high-skill labor intensive goods, as well as high-skill immigration, tend to reduce the volume of populism.