THE 2002 TRADE PROMOTION AUTHORITY BILL: DETERMINANTS OF U.S. CONGRESSIONAL VOTING BEHAVIOR

This paper investigated empirically the political and economic determinants of voting behavior of the U.S. Congress in the Trade Promotion Authority bill -- by applying a logit model. The empirical findings suggested that environmentalists, labor, business ideologues and contributions from political action committees of business had a significant influence on Congressional votes. The relationships of party affiliation and the unemployment variable on voting behavior were consistent but had an insignificant impact. On the other hand, the relationships of state exports and conservative ideology on voting behavior were inconsistent.