The dragon down under: The regional labour market impact of growth in Chinese imports to Australia

Michael Coelli, James Maccarrone and Jeff Borland
Additional contact information
James Maccarrone: Department of Economics, the University of Melbourne

Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series from Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne

Abstract: Imports of manufactured goods from China to Australia grew more than eleven-fold in real US dollar terms between 1991 and 2006. This study uses differences in industry structure between regions to identify the impact of that growth on labour market outcomes in Australia. Overall, the growth in Chinese imports is estimated to have reduced the ratio of manufacturing employment to population by 1.6 percentage points, and manufacturing employment by 221,000 workers. Adjustment to this impact on local manufacturing employment appears to have occurred through labour mobility between regions, but also increased rates of unemployment and non-participation. Growth in manufacturing imports from other Asian countries during this period, by contrast, is found to have had little impact on manufacturing employment in Australia – with the main explanation for the difference being that Chinese imports were weighted more to manufacturing sectors experiencing slower growth in domestic consumption (absorption) and with high labour-intensity. The study concludes by interpreting the estimated impacts of Chinese imports on Australia against estimates for other countries.

Keywords: Manufacturing employment; trade shocks; labour market adjustment; import exposure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F16 F66 J21 J23 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 64pp
Date: 2021-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-int, nep-sea and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/__data/a ... 849575/wp2021n09.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The dragon Down Under: the regional labour market impact of growth in Chinese imports to Australia (2023)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2021n09

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series from Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010 Australia. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sheri Carnegie ().