Cordell Hull Institute: Activities of the Institute
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Funding of the Institute

The Institute is funded by corporate donations and foundation grants and looks to a broad base of support to preserve its independence.

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The Institute is a non-profit educational foundation, incorporated in Washington, DC, and is tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

 

"Research on industry and trade is likely to be a poor relation of economic research in general so long as 'practical men' insist on judging it by the question, 'What does it do for me?' Instead, it should be judged by the question, 'What does it do for the country?'

"The question that research into discriminatory and restrictive practices should raise in the mind of the practical businessman is not, 'Am I a bad man?' To that, the answer cannot be 'yes', for he knows that he is loyal to his company and good to his wife and children.

 

"Rather the question should be, 'If other people in society consider me to be a bad man, why is it that I am constrained to behave that way in order to survive?' The answer frequently is that his fellow men, through the political process, have constrained him to behave in one way, but insist on judging him as if he is free to behave, and should behave, in another."

 

— HARRY G. JOHNSON, Foreword to Geoffrey Denton
et al., Trade Effects of Public Subsidies to Private Enterprise (1975)
Activities of the Institute
Cordell Hull Award
Background to the Initiative
Next Phase in the WTO System
Funding of the Institute

What Does it Do for the Country?

Economic policy research on industrial organization and international trade and investment suffers from a disadvantage not encountered, or not encountered as much, in other fields of economic enquiry.

 

Governments and businesses are inclined to think of research in these areas only as a means of promoting their interests. They have difficulty in seeing such research as enabling the rest of society to understand them and their problems.

 

This means when it comes to the disclosure of discriminatory practices that governments and businesses are happy with research and analysis that finds the mote in their neighbors eye, but distressed and even angry with research and analysis that finds the beam in their own.