Untangling Trade and Technology: Evidence from Local Labor Markets

NBER Working Paper No. 18938

Issued in April 2013

NBER Program(s):International Trade and Investment, Labor Studies



We juxtapose the effects of trade and technology on employment in U.S. local labor markets between 1990 and 2007. Labor 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. Labor markets susceptible to computerization due to specialization in routine task-intensive activities experience significant occupational polarization within manufacturing and nonmanufacturing but no 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 computerization of information-processing tasks in non manufacturing.

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Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w18938

Published: Untangling Trade and Technology: Evidence from Local Labour Markets David H. Autor1,*, David Dorn2 andGordon H. Hanson3 The Economic Journal Volume 125, Issue 584, pages 621–646, May 2015 citation courtesy of

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