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Replication Data for: Silent Losers of Export Surpluses

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Title Replication Data for: Silent Losers of Export Surpluses
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/SRF1BG
 
Creator Polyak, Palma
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description Germany’s excessive current account surpluses mirror domestic problems. They are rooted in inequality and a weak home market, creating an overdependence on exports. Why, then, are policymakers so reluctant to reduce them? This paper argues that a contributing factor is the public misrepresentation of surpluses’ domestic costs. Imbalances are narrated as distributional conflicts between countries, not within them; and bilateral trade is framed as a competition, where surplus countries win. The analysis reconstructs stakeholders’ positions and discursive strategies through media narratives and Bundestag debates, using an original dataset of public statements. It finds evidence for a systematic bias disregarding the domestic losers of surpluses. Whenever imbalances are discussed, the triggering event is outside criticism, mainly from the European Commission and the United States. The ensuing debate follows an ‘us versus them’ logic, where foreign critics clash with domestic defenders – mainly the government and export-sector organizations. The success narrative and identitarian discourse about an ‘export nation’ limits left-wing actors’ room to move beyond incremental criticism. The analysis finds an effect of European integration exacerbating imbalances. Germans fend off critics by an arena-shifting strategy: pointing out that exchange rates and trade are European-level prerogatives, disregarding internal policy levers for rebalancing.
 
Subject Social Sciences
global imbalances
media frames
distributional conflict
Germany
 
Contributor Polyak, Palma