Replication data for: The Surprisingly Swift Decline of US Manufacturing Employment

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Justin R. Pierce; Peter K. Schott

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Project Citation:

Pierce, Justin R., and Schott, Peter K. Replication data for: The Surprisingly Swift Decline of US Manufacturing Employment. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2016. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2019-10-12. https://doi.org/10.3886/E112965V1

Project Description

Summary: This paper links the sharp drop in US manufacturing employment after 2000 to a change in US trade policy that eliminated potential tariff increases on Chinese imports. Industries more exposed to the change experience greater employment loss, increased imports from China, and higher entry by US importers and foreign-owned Chinese exporters. At the plant level, shifts toward less labor-intensive production and exposure to the policy via input-output linkages also contribute to the decline in employment. Results are robust to other potential explanations of employment loss, and there is no similar reaction in the European Union, where policy did not change.

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:
      D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
      E24 Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
      F13 Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
      F16 Trade and Labor Market Interactions
      L24 Contracting Out; Joint Ventures; Technology Licensing
      L60 Industry Studies: Manufacturing: General
      P33 Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions: International Trade, Finance, Investment, Relations, and Aid

Geographic Coverage: United States, European Union, China

Time Period(s): 1/1/1990 – 1/1/2007

Data Type(s): administrative records data; census/enumeration data

Collection Notes: Most datasets build up from confidential plant-, firm-, or transaction-level data available from teh U.S. Census Bureau.

Methodology

Data Source: Longitudinal Business Database, Census of Manufacturing, Longitudinal Foreign Trade Transaction Database

Unit(s) of Observation: Plant, Firm, Industry, Harmonized System Product,

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Published Versions

V1 [2019-10-12]

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DDI 2.5

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