Survival of the best fit: exposure to low-wage countries and the (uneven) growth of U.S. manufacturing plants

Andrew Bernard, J. Jensen () and Peter Schott

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This paper examines the role of international trade in the reallocation of U.S. manufacturing activity within and across industries from 1977 to 1997. It introduces a new measure of industry exposure to international trade, motivated by the Heckscher-Ohlin model, which focuses on where imports originate rather than their overall level. Results demonstrate that plant survival as well as output and employment growth are negatively associated with the share of industry imports sourced from the world ¿s lowest-wage countries. Within industries, activity is reallocated towards capital- intensive plants. Plants are also more likely to alter their product mix (i.e. switch industries) in response to trade with low-wage countries. Plants altering their product mix switch to industries that are more capital and skill- intensive.

Keywords: Low-Wage Country Import Competition; Heckscher-Ohlin; Manufacturing Plant (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F11 F14 L25 L60 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2003-09
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/20028/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Survival of the best fit: Exposure to low-wage countries and the (uneven) growth of U.S. manufacturing plants (2006)
Working Paper: Survival of the Best Fit: Exposure to Low-Wage Countries and the (Uneven) Growth of U.S. Manufacturing Plants (2005)
Working Paper: Survival of the Best Fit: Exposure to Low-Wage Countries and the (Uneven) Growth of U.S. Manufacturing Plants (2003)
Working Paper: Survival of the best fit: exposure to low-wage countries and the (uneven) growth of US manufacturing plants (2003)
Working Paper: Survival of the Best Fit: Exposure to Low-Wage Countries and the (Uneven) Growth of US Manufacturing Plants (2003)
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:ehl:lserod:20028

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().