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Trading Places: Mobility Responses of Native and Foreign-Born Adults to the China Trade Shock

Author

Listed:
  • Autor, David

    (MIT)

  • Dorn, David

    (University of Zurich)

  • Hanson, Gordon H.

    (Harvard University)

Abstract

Previous research finds that the greater geographic mobility of foreign than native-born workers facilitates labor market adjustment to shifting regional economic conditions. We examine immigration's role in enabling U.S. commuting zones to respond to manufacturing job loss caused by import competition from China. Although foreign-born population headcounts fell by a larger proportion than those of the native-born in trade-exposed regions, the contribution of immigration to labor market adjustment in this episode was small. Because most U.S. immigrants arrived in the country after manufacturing regions were already mature, few took jobs in industries that later saw import surges. The foreign-born population share in regions with high trade exposure was only three-fifths that in regions with low exposure. Immigration may do more to aid adjustment to cyclical shocks, in which job loss follows recent hiring booms, than to aid adjustment to secular decline, in which hiring booms occurred longer ago.

Suggested Citation

  • Autor, David & Dorn, David & Hanson, Gordon H., 2024. "Trading Places: Mobility Responses of Native and Foreign-Born Adults to the China Trade Shock," IZA Discussion Papers 17213, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17213
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    Cited by:

    1. Furtado, Delia & Kong, Haiyang, 2024. "How do low-education immigrants adjust to Chinese import shocks? Evidence using English language proficiency," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    immigration; import competition; geographic labor mobility; manufacturing decline; job loss;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • L60 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - General
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)
    • R23 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - Regional Migration; Regional Labor Markets; Population

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