Trade liberalization and gender gaps in local labor market outcomes: Dimensions of adjustment in the United States

Tibor Besedes, Seung Hoon Lee and Tongyang Yang

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2021, vol. 183, issue C, 574-588

Abstract: We provide empirical results that trade liberalization with China reduced gender gaps in local U.S. labor markets. In MSAs with higher exposure to trade liberalization, the simple wage gender gap decreased, while the residual wage gap increased, indicating important selection effects in labor force participation decisions. The reduction in the gender labor force participation gap was driven by higher entry of women, in particular more educated women, and exit of the less educated men. This results in intrahousehold adjustments in work dynamics, with women entering the labor force to offset the lost income of male partners who left the labor force. We show that trade liberalization increased female workers’ unemployment rate and reliance on part-time jobs.

Keywords: Trade liberalization; Gender wage gap; Gender labor participation gap (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F16 F66 J15 J16 J70 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:183:y:2021:i:c:p:574-588

DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2020.12.020

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