How and Whom the US President Sanctions: A Time-series Cross-section Analysis of US Sanction Decisions and Characteristics

Abstract

Economic sanctions are shown throughout the literature to be largely ineffective in attaining their goals. Why then are sanctions still widely used, and, in particular, why does the United States continue to use economic sanctions with such vigor? Lindsay (1986) showed that countries would use economic sanctions for domestic purposes as well as their claimed international goals. More specifically and recently, Drury (1998) showed that the US uses economic sanctions not only for the policy goals it claims but also for undeclared domestic reasons. The findings show that the president’s decision to use economic sanctions follows the decision to use military force very closely.