Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/69398 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 7150
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We analyze the effect of rising Chinese import competition between 1990 and 2007 on U.S. local labor markets, exploiting cross-market variation in import exposure stemming from initial differences in industry specialization and instrumenting for U.S. imports using changes in Chinese imports by other high-income countries. Rising imports cause higher unemployment, lower labor force participation, and reduced wages in local labor markets that house import-competing manufacturing industries. In our main specification, import competition explains one-quarter of the contemporaneous aggregate decline in U.S. manufacturing employment. Transfer benefits payments for unemployment, disability, retirement, and healthcare also rise sharply in more trade-exposed labor markets.
Subjects: 
trade flows
import competition
local labor markets
China
JEL: 
F16
H53
J23
J31
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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