John R. Commons was one of the leading academics of the institutional economics movement whose legacy and influence is felt to this day in the work of labor legislation, collective bargaining agreements, the Legal Realist movement and of course the institutionalist movements (both old and new). Given that Commons is known as a staunch advocate for the working man, one might suspect that he favored protective tariffs for the positive impact they could have on laborers' wage rates. However, through analyzing his publications, it is clear that Commons was pessimistic about their design in theory and critical of their effects in practice.
Katherine Gillis (Wed,) studied this question.
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