Trading Places: Mobility Responses of Native and Foreign-Born Adults to the China Trade Shock

David Autor, David Dorn and Gordon Hanson

No 17213, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Previous research finds that the greater geographic mobility of foreign than native-born workers facilitates labor market adjustment to shifting regional economic conditions. We examine immigration's role in enabling U.S. commuting zones to respond to manufacturing job loss caused by import competition from China. Although foreign-born population headcounts fell by a larger proportion than those of the native-born in trade-exposed regions, the contribution of immigration to labor market adjustment in this episode was small. Because most U.S. immigrants arrived in the country after manufacturing regions were already mature, few took jobs in industries that later saw import surges. The foreign-born population share in regions with high trade exposure was only three-fifths that in regions with low exposure. Immigration may do more to aid adjustment to cyclical shocks, in which job loss follows recent hiring booms, than to aid adjustment to secular decline, in which hiring booms occurred longer ago.

Keywords: immigration; import competition; geographic labor mobility; manufacturing decline; job loss (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 F14 F16 J23 J31 L60 O47 R12 R23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 50 pages
Date: 2024-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-geo, nep-int, nep-lma and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Trading Places: Mobility Responses of Native- and Foreign-Born Adults to the China Trade Shock (2025)
Working Paper: Trading places: Mobility responses of native and foreign-born adults to the China trade shock (2023)
Working Paper: Trading Places: Mobility Responses of Native and Foreign-Born Adults to the China Trade Shock (2023)
Working Paper: Trading Places: Mobility Responses of Native and Foreign-Born Adults to the China Trade Shock (2023)
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