Lobbying Incentives and the Pattern of Protection in Rich and Poor Countries

During the past decade or so, an increasing number of economists have their attention to explaining why countries adopt protectionist policies rather than the economic welfare-maximizing regime of trade. There is also a growing body of literature by empirical that seeks to explain the interindustry pattern of protection countries. However, less attention has been given to explaining intersectoral pattern of protection across countries. In particular, is it that price and trade policies in poor countries typically protect infant industrial sector at the expense of agriculture while the policy in rich countries typically favors farmers relative to industrialists? This pattern seems paradoxical, since the distribution of aggregate and wealth has the opposite sectoral bias.