Untangling Trade and Technology: Evidence from Local Labour Markets
Author(s)
Dorn, David; Hanson, Gordon H.; Autor, David H
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We juxtapose the effects of trade and technology on employment in US local labour markets between 1980 and 2007. Labour markets whose initial industry composition exposes them to rising Chinese import competition experience significant falls in employment, particularly in manufacturing and among non-college workers. Labour markets susceptible to computerisation due to specialisation in routine task-intensive activities instead experience occupational polarisation within manufacturing and non-manufacturing but do not experience a net employment decline. Trade impacts rise in the 2000s as imports accelerate, while the effect of technology appears to shift from automation of production activities in manufacturing towards computerisation of information-processing tasks in non-manufacturing.
Date issued
2015-05Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of EconomicsJournal
The Economic Journal
Publisher
Wiley Blackwell
Citation
Autor, David H., David Dorn, and Gordon H. Hanson. “Untangling Trade and Technology: Evidence from Local Labour Markets.” The Economic Journal 125.584 (2015): 621–646.
Version: Author's final manuscript
ISSN
0013-0133
1468-0297