Nber Working Paper Series Untangling Trade and Technology: Evidence from Local Labor Markets

We juxtapose the effects of trade and technology on employment in U.S. local labor markets between 1990 and 2007. Labor markets whose initial industry composition exposes them to rising Chinese import competition experience significant falls in employment, particularly in manufacturing and among non-college workers. Labor markets susceptible to computerization due to specialization in routine task-intensive activities experience significant occupational polarization within manufacturing and nonmanufacturing but no net employment decline. Trade impacts rise in the 2000s as imports accelerate, while the effect of technology appears to shift from automation of production activities in manufacturing towards computerization of information-processing tasks in non manufacturing. David H. Autor Department of Economics MIT, E52-371 50 Memorial Drive Cambridge, MA 02142-1347 and NBER [email protected] David Dorn CEMFI Casado del Alisal 5 28014 Madrid Spain [email protected] Gordon H. Hanson IR/PS 0519 University of California, San Diego 9500 Gilman Drive La Jolla, CA 92093-0519 and NBER [email protected]