Made in China, Sold in Norway: Local Labor Market Effects of an Import Shock

50 Pages Posted: 31 Oct 2014

See all articles by Ragnhild Balsvik

Ragnhild Balsvik

Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) - Department of Economics

Sissel Jensen

Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) - Department of Economics

Kjell G. Salvanes

Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) - Department of Economics; IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: June 10, 2014

Abstract

We analyze whether regional labor markets are affected by exposure to import competition from China. We find negative employment effects for low-skilled workers, and observe that low-skilled workers tend to be pushed into unemployment or leave the labor force altogether. We find no evidence of wage effects. We partly expect this in a Nordic welfare state where firms are flexible at the employment margin, while centralized wage bargaining provides less flexibility at the wage margin. Our estimates suggest that import competition from China explains almost 10% of the reduction in the manufacturing employment share from 1996 to 2007 which is half of the effect found by Autor, Dorn and Hanson (2013) for the US.

Keywords: Import Competition, Local Labor Markets, Norway

JEL Classification: F16, H53, J23, J31

Suggested Citation

Balsvik, Ragnhild and Jensen, Sissel and Salvanes, Kjell G., Made in China, Sold in Norway: Local Labor Market Effects of an Import Shock (June 10, 2014). NHH Dept. of Economics Discussion Paper No. 25/2014, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2460719 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2460719

Ragnhild Balsvik

Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) - Department of Economics ( email )

Helleveien 30
N-5035 Bergen
Norway

Sissel Jensen

Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) - Department of Economics ( email )

Helleveien 30
N-5035 Bergen
Norway

Kjell G. Salvanes (Contact Author)

Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) - Department of Economics ( email )

Helleveien 30
N-5035 Bergen
Norway
+47 5 595 9315 (Phone)
+47 5 595 9543 (Fax)

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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