Trade and Labor Market Adjustment

The project will examine the consequences of international trade for labor markets in the United States, including the way in which the incidence of these effects depends on worker characteristics such as education and job experience. The project will examine the implications of these changing labor-market conditions for income inequality, the incidence of labor-market disruption across cities and regions, and the time frame over which labor-market adjustment to international trade occurs. The results of this study will bear directly on the current policy debates about the labor market consequences of globalization, such as the appropriate labor market adjustment policies, such as Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), wage subsidies, negative income taxes and retraining programs. They also connect to broader issues of appropriate policies towards education and skills in the labor market, and debates about appropriate regional, urban and place-based policies, including responses to urban decline and renewal.