Trade and technology have quite different effects on US businesses, according to research by Professor David Autor and colleagues presented in his 2014 Economic Journal lecture and published in the May 2015 issue of the Economic Journal. They find that local labour markets exposed to rising Chinese import competition see significant declines in jobs, whereas those susceptible to computerisation see a polarisation of occupations, but no net job loss.
The research findings are summarised in this NBER briefing:
www.nber.org/digest/aug13/w18938.html
Professor Autor discusses the study and its policy implications in this RES @econfilm short:
www.youtube.com/watch
”Untangling Trade and Technology: Evidence from Local Labour Markets” by David Autor, David Dorn and Gordon Hanson is published in the May 2015 issue of the Economic Journal. David Autor is at MIT. David Dorn is at the University of Zurich. Gordon Hanson is at the University of California, San Diego.
