Table 1, the first factor is a straightforward preference for and sense of the superiority of one’s own
country (here labeled patriotism). The second factor identifies a narrow or exclusive sense of
nationality combined with a degree of chauvinism of the “my country right or wrong” variety (here
labeled chauvinism). On the basis of this analysis, patriotism and chauvinism scores have been
calculated by averaging responses across the relevant subsets of items identified in the factor
analysis.14
Table 2 provides summary statistics for our key variables. As mentioned, ‘Protect’ ranges
from 1 to 5, as do ‘patriotism’ and ‘chauvinism’. ‘Skill’ also ranges from one to five, reflecting the
fivefold classification above; note, however, that we do not include such a variable in our regression
analyses, since there is no reason to believe that the gap between the first and second skill levels, say,
is equivalent in its effects to the gap between the second and third levels. For this reason, we
incorporate skill into the analysis by introducing a variety of dummy variables. The mobility variables
are both categorical; 0 denotes immobility, and 1 mobility. As the table makes clear, there is a lot of
variation both between and within countries, which Section 4 will exploit.
This brings us to the advantages and disadvantages of our data set compared to the data used
by other authors, and in particular those used by Scheve and Slaughter (2001). The big disadvantage
is that we do not have data on the sector in which respondents are employed; thus, we cannot directly
confrontthe Heckscher-Ohlin and specific factors world views, as other authors have done.15 The big
advantage is that we have data for notjust one country, but 20. Scheve and Slaughter find that low-
skill workers in the USA favor protection, which is useful evidence consistent with the Heckscher-
Ohlin model; but such a finding on its own does not preclude the possibility that low-skill workers
everywhere have the same attitudes (which would be completely at variance with the predictions of
14 The Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient forthe three-item patriotism scale is 0.68 and the item-total
correlations vary from 0.41 to 0.57. The four-item ethnic chauvinism scale is somewhat less satisfactory
in this regard: an alpha of 0.53 and inter-item correlations ranging from 0.31 to 0.36.
15 Nor do we have data on home ownership, another variable which Scheve and Slaughter (2001)
found to be important.
12