TY  - JOUR
AU  - Bernard,Andrew B.
AU  - Jensen,J. Bradford
AU  - Schott,Peter K.
TI  - Survival of the Best Fit: Competition from Low Wage Countries and the (Uneven) Growth of US Manufacturing Plants
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 9170
PY  - 2002
Y2  - September 2002
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9170
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w9170.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Andrew B. Bernard
Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
100 Tuck Hall
Hanover, NH  03755
Tel: 603/646-0302
Fax: 603/646-0995
E-Mail: Andrew.B.Bernard@dartmouth.edu

J. Bradford Jensen
McDonough School of Business
Georgetown University
Washington, DC 20057
Tel: 202/687-3767
E-Mail: jbj24@georgetown.edu

Peter K. Schott
Yale School of Management
135 Prospect Street
New Haven, CT 06520-8200
Tel: 203/436-4260
Fax: 203/432-6974
E-Mail: peter.schott@yale.edu
AB  - We examine the relationship between import competition from low wage countries and the reallocation of US manufacturing from 1977 to 1997. Both employment and output growth are slower for plants that face higher levels of low wage import competition in their industry. As a result, US manufacturing is reallocated over time towards industries that are more capital and skill intensive. Differential growth is driven by a combination of increased plant failure rates and slower growth of surviving plants. Within industries, low wage import competition has the strongest effects on the least capital and skill intensive plants. Surviving plants that switch industries move into more capital and skill intensive sectors when they face low wage competition.
ER  -