The Payoff to America from Globalization: A Fresh Look with a Focus on Costs to Workers

Gary Hufbauer and Zhiyao Lu ()
Additional contact information
Zhiyao Lu: Peterson Institute for International Economics

No PB17-16, Policy Briefs from Peterson Institute for International Economics

Abstract: Hufbauer and Lu, updating a landmark PIIE study made in 2005, calculate the payoff to the United States from trade expansion from 1950 to 2016 at $2.1 trillion. The payoff has stemmed from trade expansion resulting from policy liberalization and improved transportation and communications technology. The sum translates into an increase of $7,014 in GDP per capita and $18,131 in GDP per household. The potential gains from future policy liberalization could be as large as $540 billion for the United States by the year 2025, or an increase of $1,670 in GDP per capita and $4,400 in GDP per household. On the other hand, 156,250 manufacturing sector jobs were lost annually over the past 13 years, representing less than a percent of the number of people involuntary separated from their jobs each year. A more generous unemployment insurance program and expanded tax credits would help displaced workers adjust, the authors argue, while preserving the large gains resulting from trade expansion.

Date: 2017-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.piie.com/publications/policy-briefs/pa ... -focus-costs-workers (text/html)

Related works:
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:iie:pbrief:pb17-16

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Policy Briefs from Peterson Institute for International Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peterson Institute webmaster ().